Karen Marks

GAAMAA
Pronouns: she / her
Artistic Discipline: Film/Video
Category: Brooklyn Arts Fund
Grant Year: 2024
Location: Flatbush

GAAMAA is a 90 minute documentary feature film which follows the journey of Gloria Simms, affectionately called Mama G: a modern day shaman, artist, grandmother, Rastafarian, and a proud Jamaican maroon woman. She travels from her home in Jamaica to Suriname where she is surprisingly given the title Gaamang, meaning paramount chief, by the Saaamaka maroons of Suriname. It is a spiritual leader and also the highest honor of a Suriname maroon. This will change her life in Jamaica in profound, unexpected ways.