ABSTRACT
There is no defining Caribbean cinema. This task, fundamental to the project of the present chapter, rests on another essential question: What is the Caribbean. Given the manifestation of these formative experiences of colonisation, post-, and neo-coloniality in distorted self-perception and uncertain identity, readers must think not only about Caribbean cinema, but also, and—given the fact that "filmmaking in the Caribbean by Caribbean people" is a relatively recent phenomenon—perhaps first, about the Caribbean in cinema. In such a context, cinema is important because, in the words of prominent Cuban filmmaker and intellectual Julio García Espinosa, "[a] country without images is a country that does not exist. Over time, and through the production of feature films such as SistaGod and Haiti Bride, this practice has crystallised into a very deliberate quest to develop an "eyealect": a Caribbean "visual vernacular" that corresponds with the region's many linguistic variations.
