ESTHER ANDERSON

Esther Anderson, director-writer-producer

Born in the Parish of St. Mary, Jamaica, Esther Anderson studied drama at the Actor's Studio in London and played roles in movies -Henry Levin's Genghis Khan for Columbia Pictures, Robert Freeman's The Touchables for Twentieth Century Fox, Ted Kotcheff's Two Gentlemen Sharing, Jerry Lewis's One More Time for United Artists, and Sidney Poitier's A Warm December for First Artists. This role of an African princess won her a NAACP Image Award for Best Actress in 1973. Esther then helped to develop the then-fledgling Jamaican music label, Island Records, from the early 1960's, promoting and managing jamaican artists like Millie Small, Jimmy Cliff, and Bob Marley and the Wailers. Acting as an associate producer of The Harder They Come, she chose and coached Jimmy cliff for the lead role and committed Chris Blackwell to the  Her iconic photographs of Bob Marley and their lyrical collaboration launched his international career in 1973 with the groundbreaking albums Catch a Fire, Burnin' and Natty Dread. Her film Short Ends was selected by Linda Myles for the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1976. Her latest film was The Three Dumas, about the French writer Alexandre Dumas and his African ancestros. It was premiered in London as part of the commemoration of the 200 years of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 2007. It also premiered in Canada, France and the US in 2008. She did it in collaboration with Gian Godoy in Paris, with Maria Schneider as the mother of Dumas, and the voice of his Haitian grandmother.