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Cockpit Portal

Cockpit Portal is a short film serving as a visual teaser/opening to an extended magical-realist, action tale about a strong-spirited, obstinate young maroon shaken by his time as a slave travelling throughout the Jamaica Cockpit Country, across nearby plantations, and along the very continuum of space-time itself in his quest to rescue his kid-sister from colonial terror, overcome his past trauma, and avoid recapture.

  • Demi S Walker
    Director
  • Demi S Walker
    Writer
  • Demi S Walker
    Producer
  • Andre Smith
    Key Cast
    "KOMI"
  • Denver Walker
    Key Cast
  • Elijah Mututu
    Key Cast
  • Demi S Walker
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Thriller, Sci-Fi, Adventure, Action
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 35 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 16, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    100 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Jamaica
  • Country of Filming:
    Jamaica
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Demi S Walker

Demi 'Demski' Walker (b.1995) is a Jamaican interdisciplinary visual artist whose work explores notions of accessibility; sustainability; recoverability using culinary/organic emblems, ultimately investigating intersections within human/plant/animal endemism. Walker earned a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts (major) and Film Studies (minor) at the University of the West Indies, in affiliation with the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (UWI, EMCVPA, 2017). Walker recently attained a Diploma from The International School of Film and Television, San Antonio de Los Baños, Cuba, following completion of the online Workshop/Course; Big Bang! Transmedia Narratives (IECTV, 2021).

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Director Statement

Completed first as an entry for the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission FiWi Short Film Competition, this 5-6 minute short exists in some ways as a token of Jamaican heritage, especially given the intended locational provenance of the story -- the Cockpit Country. According to the World Wildlife Fund Jamaica ranks fifth among the world’s islands in terms of endemic plant life, and most of this endemicity is located in the island’s Blue Mountains and Cockpit Country. The Cockpit Country has also been a refuge and home to Jamaica's indigenous peoples, the Maroons (comprising Taíno ancestry), since the late seventeenth century, and in 2017 the proposed Cockpit Country Protected Area was finally declared so by the country's Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness.

The Caribbean is defined by a history of both beauty and tribulation, and this contrast is reflected in the cultural identities of its people and the ways in which many of these people rely upon, attain inspiration from, and are sustained by their natural environments. Cockpit Portal presents an opportunity for me to communicate these connections so that more people might be moved to a have a deeper appreciation for and desire to protect nature and to value their roles in doing so.

In terms of project progression, continuing the story Cockpit Portal initially as a web series and/or web comic will be a chance to use a real place (Cockpit Country, Jamaica) as a representation of similar natural sites that would benefit from this sort of art activism – helping to communicate important messages about fragile ecologies and biodiversity through edutainment.

Cockpit Portal is my first film, but I feel it does a pretty good job of foretelling the sort of filmography I would like to continue creating -- in part because it places as much importance on the symbolism of the setting and related visual details as it does on what the film is actually trying to say, but also because of its more experimental qualities.