"TRENCH
TOWN"
an original screenplay
Written by
Bruce Wayne Gillies
WINSTON BROWN is an oppressed ghetto youth who pioneers ska music, the predecessor of reggae, and struggles for respect among the police, rude boys, Rastafarians, and dance hall DJs in this musically-driven, dramatic film portrayal that takes place in sixties Jamaica, TRENCH TOWN.
In the early 60s ska, a cross between mento and r&b, was heard all around TRENCH TOWN. Dance hall DJ, KING SCORCHER, was already screening ska on his sounds most every night. JACK WILKES, local law enforcement, made a nightly appearance under a blanket of tear gas with his RAID UNIT inflicting brutality.
After an argument with his mother Winston Brown runs away from home and is quickly greeted with survival-of-the-fittest in TRENCH TOWN among rude boys like KEY LARGO. Key Largo is the leader of a competing ska group and constantly harasses Winston's girl, DEZZIE.
Many ska bands are auditioning and recording at one-track studios for producers like CHARLIE STEMBRIDGE. Winston meets Dezzie around the same time he meets SONNY and LESTER, the other two members of his band.
The band, THE SWEET SOUNDS, is coached and rehearsed by the well-known Rastafarian WELLS. Wells successfully guides The Sweet Sounds musically, but Winston is never able to control his temper so the group splits. After a short cooling off time they regroup, enter and win a talent contest. The win gets to Winston's head. Winston loses his friends, his job, his home and his mentor, Wells. He starts steppin' razor and running with the VIKING rude boy gang. Winston finally loses his freedom when Jack Wilkes puts him in prison.
Dezzie waits patiently for Winston to become free. Meanwhile, Wells leads his Rastafarian brethren at a state visit of their God (Jah), His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie, a.k.a. Ras Tafari. Upon getting out of jail Winston embraces the Rastafarian belief and is back recording the new rock steady sound with Wells.
They expand their size and their name to Winston Brown and The Sweet Sounds and get a U.K. tour offer from Charlie Stembridge. Once in England their tour is canceled and they are unable to continue. Out of desperation, and for the first time ever, Stembridge provides funding to Winston Brown and The Sweet Sounds to record an entire album of new reggae songs, achieving maximum respect for the sufferah of TRENCH TOWN