Writer/Director/Producer

Max-Arthur Mantle is a Jamaican-born American author, photographer and filmmaker. His work is centered around highlighting, celebrating and elevating Black and Brown, LGBTQ+ and Caribbean, particularly Jamaican narratives. He studied Journalism and Photography at Howard University (Washington, DC) and served in the US military (Navy). 

His debut novel Batty Bwoy, self-published in 2015 is the coming of age story of Mark Palmer, a black, gay, Jamaican where “Boom bye bye inna batty bwoy head” (meaning, gunshot to gay men) has replaced the island’s motto “Out of many one people.” The son of an overbearing neglectful mother, he is thrust in an environment that requires a thick skin from torments and socio-economic disparities. Suppressing his “gay tendencies” to detract being bashed or murdered, he migrates to America and breaks free from the closet to a world where he is marginalized. As his life spirals from bad choices, he clings to desperate measures and finds hope.

In photography, Mantle worked as a freelance fashion photographer in Miami Beach and New York City in the early 2000 shooting portfolios for agency represented models and garnering fashion editorials and covers for US and international fashion magazine. He in known for shooting the last cover of BLUE+66 magazine (Australia's premiere photo art high-end magazine) and a 2012 photo book "Beach Boys" published by Bruno Gmunder (Berlin, Germany).

In film, Mantle directed and produced the groundbreaking documentary VISIBLE: The LGBTQ Caribbean Diaspora (2023), which features 30 participants who deconstruct what it means to be Caribbean, LGBTQ and living in North America. He is currently developing his first narrative feature BATTY BWOY! inspired by the novel and a slate of film projects.

I was twenty-one in 1992 when Buju Banton released his gay-hate anthem "Boom Bye Bye.” A popular sound the alarm to kill gay men in Jamaica. I was preparing to study at university in Jamaica, and knowing that I am gay, I began to monitor my behavior and like a priest taking a vow of celibacy, I was going to devote my adult life to being a closeted academic in a country where being gay is not only criminalized by buggery laws, but vigilante beatings and murder of gay men are commonplace. Then my father filed for me to migrate to America, and I exhaled. It not only meant socio-economic mobility, but the opportunity to be free to explore my identity without fear and on my terms.

At Howard University, I evolved from an awkward freshman to a socially valued, trailblazing upperclassman. After university, my brief traumatizing stint in the US military thickened my skin and threw me a curb ball different from the life I had planned. I recovered and became a working fashion photographer in Miami Beach, shooting covers for international magazines with a body of work culminating in two photo books. And with the setbacks, came other opportunities and other pursuits. My debut novel in 2015, Batty Bwoy, the inspiration for the film, spawned a documentary entitled VISIBLE – The LGBTQ Caribbean diaspora, which was screened at OutFest Film Festival, MIX Copenhagen, Kampala International Queer Film Festival, CaribbeanTales International Film Festival and is currently of interest to LGBTQ student centers and other departments at colleges and universities.

My creative pursuit is anchored by the desire to protect other boys who like me was almost killed by an angry homophobic mob in Jamaica over 35 years ago. Some never survived. I wonder what kind of life I would have had, if I had stayed. I fear I would have been reduced to a fraction of who I am today.

While there have been a couple documentaries about the plight of LGBTQ Jamaicans done by foreign entities, namely UK’s VICE News in 2014, which spotlight the “gulley queens” in Kingston, and the 2016 Gaycation TV series directed by Americans Elliot Page and Ian Daniel, there has never been a narrative feature film with LGBTQ themes and created, directed and produced by a Jamaican-born filmmaker who is part of the LGBTQ community. This story is not only important, but it is needed. It will resonate not only with the LGBTQ Jamaicans, but also on a global level by the international LGBTQ community as well as anyone irrespective of their sexual orientation who are advocates for change. The universal community who supports and empathize with marginalized groups who are oppressed by inhumane laws from colonial times that promote ignorance and disparities in communities that foster inequalities and injustice. This is a human rights story with a poignant social impact premise. The tangible impact of this film is immeasurable. It can not only change heart and minds, but it can serve as a catalyst to real change.

John G. Young is an American director, producer and writer. He graduated from the State University of New York at Purchase (SUNY Purchase)where he now teaches and is Chair of The Film Conservatory. His feature films include Parallel Sons (1995), The Reception (2005), Rivers Wash Over Me (2009) and bwoy (2016), starring RENT’s Anthony Rapp. He also produced Garden in 2004. He was also a VP of Production and Editorial Director for Human Relations Media (HRM) for almost two decades, having created over one hundred award-winning programs for the company. He has also supervised a series of shorts entitled Amazing Kids of Character, Profiles in Courage and Portraits of Empathy with Human Relations Media in collaboration with Anson Schloat.

Chris Browne is a Jamaican-born cinematographer known for Destiny (2014) and No Place Like Home (2006). He has worked in the camera department on international film and television productions including Luke Cage (2018), A Perfect Getaway (2009), How Stella Got Her Groove back (1998) and Wide Sargasso Sea (1993). He has also written and directed the critically acclaimed, box office success Jamaican films Ghett’a Life (2011) and Third World Cop (1999). He is the owner and managing director of Rock Steady Productions, Jamaica’s leading film production company.

Chris Browne is a Jamaican-born cinematographer known for Destiny (2014) and No Place Like Home (2006). He has worked in the camera department on international film and television productions including Luke Cage (2018), A Perfect Getaway (2009), How Stella Got Her Groove back (1998) and Wide Sargasso Sea (1993). He has also written and directed the critically acclaimed, box office success Jamaican films Ghett’a Life (2011) and Third World Cop (1999). He is the owner and managing director of Rock Steady Productions, Jamaica’s leading film production company.