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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Bahamas International Film Festival
Iconic actress, singer, songwriter, supermodel, and record producer Grace Jones received a Career Achievement Award at this year’s Bahamas International Film Festival on December 15 at The Ocean Club, in New Providence. Serving as the Festival’s most prestigious symbol of recognition, awarded in appreciation of the lifetime achievements of an actor, BIFF’s Career Achievement Award will be bestowed to Jones on the evening of Friday, December 15th at The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, Bahamas The announcement was made by BIFF Founder and Executive Director Leslie Vanderpool. In addition to receiving BIFF’s Career Achievement Award, Jones presented her latest film, “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami” - the acclaimed documentary from director Sophie Fiennes. “Grace’s trademark charisma has fueled memorable performances for decades, but in watching her amazing body of work, the depth of her performances is unmistakable and equally as memorable," said Vanderpool. "Having Grace in The Bahamas to receive the Career Achievement Award and present the highly acclaimed ‘Bloodlight and Bami’ is a huge honour for the festival and the audiences who will share in the experience.”
Filmed over the course of a decade, the documentary, “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami,” from director Sophie Fiennes (The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology) offers a stylish and unconventional look at the Jamaican-born model, singer, and New Wave icon. Grace Jones, the statuesque Jamaican model-turned-singer, actress and icon has made a career performing versions of herself. But who is the real Grace Jones behind the masks and makeup? This film moves between her personae onstage and off. Don't expect a traditional music biography with sit-down interviews and archival footage. This treatment is as stylish and unconventional as its subject. In the subtitle, "bloodlight" refers to the studio signal for recording and "bami" is a Jamaican flatbread. They stand for art and life. Filmmaker Sophie Fiennes has previously made films about a philosopher, a dancer, and an artist. Each time, she conjures a fresh style for the material. (One of her early documentaries, Hoover Street Revival, profiled Jones' brother Noel, the Los Angeles preacher). With Grace Jones, filmed over 10 years, we gain entry to her private spaces: her family in Jamaica, in the studio with long-time collaborators Sly & Robbie, and in Paris with her one-time image maker and lover, Jean-Paul Goude. In negotiations glimpsed on camera, she demonstrates that you wouldn't want to go against her. "Sometimes you have to be a high-flying bitch." Yet we also catch her in sweet and vulnerable moments. Interspersed throughout the film are performances from a 2016 concert staged for Fiennes' camera. Strutting the stage like an Amazon in heels, Jones performs songs such as "Slave to the Rhythm," "Love is the Drug" and "Amazing Grace" with multiple costume changes. This might be the first documentary with a credit for Corset Designer. Whatever mysteries she conceals, one thing is for certain: we can't take our eyes off her.
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