Dancehall Queen Explained

Dancehall Queen
Director:	Don Letts Rick Elgood
Starring:	Audrey Reid Paul Campbell Beenie Man Cherine Anderson
Producer:	Carl Bradshaw Carolyn Pfeiffer Chris Blackwell
Music:	Wally Badarou
Cinematography:	Louis Mulvey
Editing:	Suzanne Fenn
Runtime:	98 minutes
Language:	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.

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

• Audrey Reid as Marcia, a struggling street vendor, who decides to use dancing to better her situation. So, she takes on the persona of the Mystery Lady, to raise money.
• Cherine Anderson as Tanya, Marcia's older daughter. Trying to live a normal life, she has to deal with the advances of Larry, the wealthy man that her mother seeks money from.
• Mark Danvers as Junior, Marcia's younger brother and Tanya's uncle. After witnessing his friend's death, at the hands of Priest, he fears he'll be murdered next.
• Carl Davis as Larry, a well-off man, who has an interest in Tanya, he falls for the Mystery Lady.
• Paul Campbell as Priest, the knife-wielding hoodlum who's pursuing Marcia
• Carl Bradshaw as Police Officer #1
• Beenie Man as himself
• Lady Saw as herself
• Paula Ouch as herself
• Debbie Ouch as herself
• Nicky Ouch as herself

Soundtrack

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

External links

• Official Website

Notes and 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."