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Nadean Rawlins is participating in the Lab with a project called ‘Traytown’.

Nadean Rawlins is the first Jamaican producer to participate in the Rotterdam Lab as the Jamaican industry aims to establish international partnerships and create a sustainable film sector.

She took part in the Lab with her project Traytown. “It is a very character-driven, female-led film,” says the award-winning actress, theatre producer and talent manager. “It shows a strong female lead in a male-dominated world.”

A short film version of Traytown, scripted by Letay Williams, premiered at the Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival last September. Rawlins co-directed the film as...

From Kingston to Lewisham, here are five other must-see reggae movies

The Harder They Come (Dir. Perry Henzell, Jamaica, 1972)

Jamaica's first feature, and the one against which others are measured. The plot – poor country boy seeks fortune in city – is archetypal, but Henzell cleverly turns our admiration for hero Ivan (Jimmy Cliff in incendiary form) into revulsion, as the film shifts through melodrama, comedy and musical into tragedy. Immortal movie moments – "You think the hero can be dead before the last reel?" scoffs Ivan at one point – and a stunning soundtrack led by Cliff's title song make this a five-star classic.

Rockers (Dir. Ted Bafaloukos, Jamaica, 1979)

A "Dreadsploitation" flick that's now a vibrant time capsule of reggae's halcyon days. Drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace plays a hapless muso caught up in Kingston's music wars. The plot's paper thin, but there's a gallery of great cameo appearances – Jacob Miller and Gregory Isaacs...

A movie detailing a Jamaican love story is the biggest single winner in the latest cash handout from the Film Council's New Cinema Fund, the Council said Wednesday. The movie, entitled One Love and starring the late Bob Marley's son Ky-Mani Marley, secures £459,182 ($720,916) in funding from the New Cinema Fund, headed by Paul Trijbits. Currently in post-production, the latest cash handout means the film's total funding from the New Cinema Fund now totals £899,182 ($1.4 million). Directed by the team behind Dancehall Queen -- Rick Elgood and Don Letts -- One Love is produced by Yvonne Deutschman, Shelaagh Ferrell and Bjorn Eivind Aarskog. The New Cinema Fund is also pumping £375,000 (£588,750) into the pre-production of Stop History! The project tells the story of an ex-Kurdish freedom fighter living in London whose past comes back to haunt him when a violent ex-comrade arrives from Turkey to visit. The project is written and directed by Wayne Holloway and produced by Tigerlily Films' Natasha Dack. The third movie securing a cash handout from the fund is Amma Asante's directorial debut A Way of Life, which receives £360,000 ($565,200).