Franklyn St Juste

Franklyn Joseph-Marie St Juste (1929 – 5 November 2019), also known as Chappie St Juste, was a Trinidadian-born Jamaican film-maker, educator and theatrical lighting designer. He is best known for his work as a cinematographer on the film The Harder They Come, directed by Perry Henzell, and for his work with the Jamaica Film Unit and Jamaica Information Service.

Early life Franklyn Joseph-Marie St Juste As a cinematographer for both the JFU and JIS, he filmed many important moments in Jamaican history, such as the lowering of the Union Jack and its replacement with the flag of Jamaica when the country was granted her independence from the British Empire in 1962, which he captured for the film A Nation is Born. For Lion of Judah (1966), St Juste filmed the visit of Emperor Haile Selassie I to Jamaica. directed by Perry Henzell and starring Jimmy Cliff. The cult success of the film as a midnight movie in the United States is regarded as partially responsible for the proliferation of reggae music internationally. St Juste also worked on Lennie Little-White's Children of Babylon (1980), starring Bob Andy, and Michael Mooleedhar's short film The Cool Boys (2012). and for the Jamaican Folk Singers's show Out of Many, One (2008).

Teaching In the mid-1970s, St Juste was invited to work part-time as a lecturer in film production at University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, later becoming a senior lecturer at UWI Mona's Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication as well as a visiting lecturer at UWI St Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago.

Personal life and death Franklyn St Juste was born in Trinidad and gained Saint Lucian citizenship from his father; he was later a naturalised Jamaican national. He died from complications due to cancer on 5 November 2019 at the University Hospital of the West Indies, at Mona. He was survived by two sons and a daughter.

Honours

In 1998, St Juste was honoured for a lifetime achievement in film with the Doctor Bird Award. In 2004, the Institute of Jamaica awarded St Juste with the Musgrave Medal in silver and, later that year, the Jamaican government conferred him with the Order of Distinction (Officer Class). In 2008, the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival in Canada awarded St Juste with their Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2012, Sir Patrick Allen awarded St Juste the Govenor General's Medal of Honour. The Franklyn St Juste Award for Best Directing, presented by GATFFEST Film Festival, affiliated with the UWI, is named in St Juste's honour.