Beach Inna Bondage: The Fight for Jamaica’s Coastline

Screening of three documentaries that examine the fight against gentrification and the fight to protect Caribbean coastlines.

Join us for a compelling evening of three documentaries exploring the fight for Caribbean coastlines, communities and self-determination. From the privatized beaches of Jamaica to the gentrification of Puerto Rico, each film offers a powerful lens on who gets to belong and who gets pushed out.

These three films are in conversation with one another. They trace a line from the colonial-era Beach Control Act of 1956, which still governs Jamaica’s coastline, to the tax incentives that drive gentrification in Puerto Rico, to the cinematic construction of the Caribbean as a playground for outsiders. Together, they reveal that the struggles for beach access and housing are not separate issues but manifestations of the same ongoing colonial project, where Caribbean land and labour are extracted for beauty for the benefit of others.

In this programme Karla King Visual Artist Emiel Martens Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam and filmmaker Elsie Vermeer Documentary filmmaker and journalist

More about Beach Inna Bondage

At just under 30 minutes, Beach Inna Bondage delivers an urgent exploration of the growing loss of beach access in Jamaica. Since the 1950s, most of Jamaica’s beaches have been taken over by private and tourist interests, and particularly since the 2000s large-scale hotel developments have limited beach access for Jamaicans. The film follows the grassroots movement resisting the privatisation of Jamaican beaches by focusing on three frontline struggles: Bob Marley Beach near Kingston, the Blue Lagoon in the parish of Portland, and Mammee Bay Beach on the island’s North Coast. The interviewees, all Jamaicans, reveal how the 1956 Beach Control Act, which is still in effect today, vests ownership of the foreshore in the Jamaican state and traces how this colonial-era law, combined with the island’s all-inclusive tourism model, displaces communities, disrupts livelihoods, and degrades environments.

Interwoven with archival footage, news clips, and recordings of protest rallies and court cases, the interviewees situate today’s beach access struggles within Jamaica’s troubled history of land ownership following emancipation and independence. They argue that the island’s tourism industry replicates plantation logic by monopolizing land, concentrating wealth, exporting profits, and, ultimately, marginalizing the people. Beach Inna Bondage shows that beach access, which is not only an issue in Jamaica but across the Caribbean and beyond, is an urgent matter of historical, economic, social, cultural and environmental justice, raising the pressing question: Who truly benefits from Jamaica’s tourism industry?

More about the speakers

Karla King is a Jamaican visual artist, born and raised in Trelawny and now based in the Netherlands. Drawing on her background in sustainability and human-centered design, her work uses painting and poetry to explore themes including womanhood, identity, migration, and cultural heritage. King sees art as a vehicle for social change and a means of creating understanding and connection. In 2026, she founded the Ackee Seed Foundation, a Netherlands-based NGO that uses art and culture to support social development in Jamaica through community projects with young people, schools, and other educational organizations.

Elsie Vermeer is a Dutch documentary filmmaker and journalist with a background in visual anthropology. She currently works as a content creator for Dutch public broadcaster HUMAN, while also developing independent film projects. These projects focus on exposing social inequalities, collaborating closely with her protagonists to tell their stories in a sensative and respectful way. For example, her most recent short, Who Cares, explores why undocumented immigrants in Amsterdam are often not receiving the healthcare to which they are entitled. In 2025-2026, Elsie was based in Kingston, Jamaica, where she worked on several film projects, including Beach Inna Bondage.

Emiel Martens is a Dutch film scholar-practitioner whose work explores the intersections of film, tourism, and empire in the Caribbean, with a particular focus on Jamaica. He is Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Film Studies at the University of Amsterdam and until recently served as a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. During his fellowship, he worked on several research-based film projects, including Beach Inna Bondage. Martens is also the Founding Director of Caribbean Creativity, a non-profit organization dedicated to the programming and promotion of Caribbean and Caribbean-themed cinema in Jamaica and the Netherlands.

More about the production...

Beach Inna Bondage: The Fight for Jamaica’s Coastline
Directors: Emiel Martens & Elsie Vermeer in collaboration with JaBBEM & Keznamdi
Year: 2026
Country: Jamaica and the Netherlands
Runtime: 29 minutes

Produced in collaboration with the Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement (JaBBEM)
and reggae artist Keznamdi. Keznamdi, whose song ‘Colonial Bondage’ features prominently in the film, is a recent Grammy Award winner for Best Reggae Album (2025) for BLXXD & FYAH.
JaBBEM (Jamaica Beach Birthright Environmental Movement) is a grassroots initiative advocating for public beach access, environmental protection, and coastal justice in Jamaica. The movement engages communities through advocacy, education, and action to protect Jamaica’s
coastal heritage. More information: www.jabbem.org

Caribbean Creativity is Dutch non-profit organzation committed to programming and promotion of Caribbean and Caribbean-themed cinema in the Netherlands and beyond. More information: www.caribbeancreativity.nl