Dancehall Queen

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Dancehall Queen
Dancehallqueen.jpg
Directed by Don Letts
Rick Elgood
Written bySuzanne Fenn
Ed Wallace
Don Letts
Produced by Carl Bradshaw
Carolyn Pfeiffer
Chris Blackwell
Starring Audrey Reid
Paul Campbell
Beenie Man
Cherine Anderson
CinematographyLouis Mulvey
Edited bySuzanne Fenn
Music by Wally Badarou
Release date
  • 10 October 1997 (1997-10-10)
Running time
98 minutes
Languages English, Jamaican Patois

Dancehall Queen is a 1997 indie Jamaican film written by Suzanne Fenn, Ed Wallace and Don Letts, starring Audrey Reid, who plays Marcia, a street vendor struggling to raise a bad-tempered daughter, Tanya (Cherine Anderson). Directed by Don Letts and Rick Elgood.

Contents

Plot

Marcia Green (Audrey Reid) is a single mom and street vendor barely scraping by even with a financial assist from the seemingly avuncular Larry (Carl Davis), a gun-toting strongman with a twisted desire for Marcia's teenage daughter Tanya (Cherine Anderson) who he then decides to pursue. Complicating things is Priest (Paul Campbell), a murderous hoodlum who killed Marcia's friend and now is terrorizing the defenseless woman. Facing three big problems (Larry, Priest, and without money), Marcia arrives at an inspired solution: develop an alter ego, a dancing celebrity called the Mystery Lady who can compete in a cash-prize contest and put both of the men against one another.

She does so and Marcia very amusingly carries out her complicated plan, with a little help from sympathetic friends.

Cast

Soundtrack

Dancehall Queen mixed recent hits with songs created for the movie, including the title track by Beenie Man. [1]

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References

  1. Kevin O'Brien Chang, Wayne Chen, Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music, 1998, p. 216: "'The Harder They Come' collected some of the cream of reggae's golden years from 1967 to 1971 with only the title track being a new song. 'Dancehall Queen' mixed some recent hits with songs created for the movie. ...Still 'Dancehall Queen' was the biggest song of 1997, heading the Star Top 40 for nine weeks."