Perry Henzell Double Feature

Perry Henzell Double Feature

Born into a prominent Jamaican family but largely disinterested in the privileges this afforded him, Perry Henzell would break new cinematic ground with his seductively gritty, lightning-in-a-bottle debut "The Harder They Come" (1972). The first full-length, fully Jamaican film, it was a huge success on the American midnight movie circuit and is credited with “bringing reggae to the world.” That Henzell shot a second feature straight afterwards only came to light shortly before his passing in 2006, when the footage, missing for decades, was rediscovered by chance: featuring "The Harder They Come"’s Carl Bradshaw and another swaggering reggae soundtrack, "No Place Like Home" further cements Henzell as one of Caribbean cinema’s most significant voices.

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Perry Henzell Double Feature
  • The Harder They Come

    Directed by Perry Henzell | 102 mins | 1972
    Star Jimmy Cliff holds down both the screen and the soundtrack in this rude-boy cult classic, Jamaica’s first feature film, which draws on the legend of folk hero prison escapee Ivanhoe “Rhygin” Martin. Cliff plays Ivan, a bumpkin naif freshly arrived i...

  • No Place Like Home

    Directed by Perry Henzell | 89 mins | 2006
    Perry Henzell’s follow-up to "The Harder They Come" (1972) very nearly never saw the light of day: funding dried up before its completion, and then the footage was lost. Rediscovered by chance in 2006 and restored in 2019—nearly half a century after the ...