This article explores two biographical video documentaries produced
by the Sistren Theater Collective of Jamaica. Together, the
documentaries, Miss Amy and Miss May and The Drums Keep
Sounding, document the lives of three Jamaican women activists:
Amy Bailey, May Farquharson and Louise Bennett-Coverley.
Although video/film production never attained a prominent role
in Sistren’s approach to its activism, which focused on participatory
drama to address issues of concern to working-class black
women, the documentaries produced in the 1980s and 1990s
allowed the Collective to expand its reach beyond the limitations
imposed by the geographical proximity necessary for live theater.
The article examines the structuring devices of these two biographical
documentaries and interrogates how the utilization of the
medium of video raises class-based ambiguities within the
Collective’s mission to celebrate the lives of Caribbean women.