A semiotic study of the (mis) representation of nonWestern cultures in film : the Jamaican case

Abstract

"For too long, the mainstream film industry has been dominated by a narrative that excludes so many people's lived experiences and reduces all of our specific and vibrant diversity to a few standardised, often negative and always limited representations of who we are today, who were yesterday and who we'll become in the future." (Kolade, as cited in Jenkins, 2022, para.7) Misrepresentation in cinema hasn't gone unnoticed by both film scholars and spectators. Although, misrepresentation usually focuses on the gender-based ostracism of women in film, or how people from different racial backgrounds are portrayed, there are other forms of misrepresentation that exist, such as the misrepresentation of cultures and, by extension, the people who live within them.