Twelve30 Collective present: No Place Like Home (1973), Perry Henzell's little known follow-up to The Harder They Come with special guest Justine Henzell (Perry’s daughter and the film’s executive producer), who has been instrumental in the rediscovery and completion of the film after the negative was thought lost for over 25 years.

This road movie through 70s Jamaica, which introduces actress Grace Jones, is the memorable last testament of an undeniably great filmmaker with a handpicked soundtrack including Bob Marley, Etta James, Carly Simon, Toots & The Maytals and more. Susan (Susan O’Meara) is the American producer of a shampoo commercial being shot in Jamaica. When the star, PJ (PJ Soles, Carrie and Halloween), abandons the shoot, Susan sets out to find her, with charismatic local fixer Carl (Carl Bradshaw, The Harder They Come).

Making their way through the countryside Susan and Carl find themselves attracted to each other. Neither of them, however, has any illusions about the separate and unequal worlds to which they belong. If The Harder They Come took its cues from Sergio Leone’s Westerns and the Blaxploitation films of Gordon Parks and Melvin Van Peebles, the naturalistic and improvised No Place Like Home reveals Perry Henzell’s affinity with the cinema of John Cassavetes, Robert Altman and Dennis Hopper. Shot on Super 16mm, No Place Like Home celebrates Jamaica’s natural beauty even as it casts a wary eye over the island’s tourist economy and the complications that come with it.

No Place Like Home premieres at Cinema Rediscovered and goes on to screen in London from 6 Aug onwards (Jamaican Independence Day) at select venues across the UK including BFI Southbank (Sept). 

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