Ecological Identity and film

What does it mean to hear within ourselves the voice of the earth? Theodore Roszak, granddaddy of the ecopsychology movement, suggested that was what we needed in order to return to a culture that was regenerative, sustainable and for our own good mental health.

An image has been coming to me for several days now. I woke up with it in my mind’s eye again this morning. Morgan’s Harbor. A yacht club, a bar, restaurant and small hotel… a gathering place on the Palisadoes Peninsula before you get to the end of the seven mile thin strip of land that juts out from the edge of Kingston, forming Kingston Harbor, one of the best natural harbors in the world, the tip being the old ruined city of Port Royal, the infamous Pirate Gathering Place of the seventeenth century, referred to as the Wickedest place on Earth, that famously sank in a magnitude 7 earthquake in 1692, many of its buildings now under water, a museum below sea. 

Morgan’s Harbor, named for Henry Morgan one of those famous Buccaneers, was a favorite weekend place to visit in my childhood. My uncle kept his boat Screwball there from which he would take us to Lime Cay or Maiden Cay for the day. 

I learned to swim at Morgan’s Harbor in the enclosed sea pool created by being enclosed on three sides by the wooden boardwalk and dock where the boats would pull up.

You know the place. It’s where James Bond goes to meet Quarrel, the boat captain he hires to take him to Crab Key in Dr. No.

There was a discussion in an ecopsychology circle on Facebook about which films are best with ecopsychology themes. My favorite to assign my students is My Octopus Teacher because it’s a great example of a film that explores ecological identity over the lifetime of the filmmaker as he grew up on that wild shore in South Africa and returned to it as an adult after suffering burnout. He discovers there an octopus and learns a lot from her. 

My somewhat unlikely film that gives me a lot to reflect on my own ecological identity is none other than Dr. No, filmed in Jamaica the year I was born and with a character born himself in Jamaica through the imagination of Ian Fleming who lived and wrote there at his house Goldeneye. 

The film begins in Downtown Kingston at a place called Parade, a most dangerous place to go to or so I was told growing up. The film affirms this with the first murder taking place. We see our main character arrive at the Kingston Palisadoes Airport where he is met by Mr. Jones, a driver.  Mr. Jones, a fixture in my childhood. Reggie Carter, the actor was a dear family friend. Mr. Jones meets his end along the same Palisadoes Road after Bond tells him to turn off onto a dirt road, one of many along that Palisadoes Strip some with good surfing spots my cousins used to frequent.

The cement factory, the bauxite factory… all landmarks in my childhood …. and the familiar Calypso sounds of the beloved Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires set that 60s’ Jamaica party vibe… the place in the Blue Mountains where he meets his date who wants to make him a Chinese dinner but he wants a reservation at Blue Mountain Grill instead (you had to be rich to go to Blue Mountain Grill as I recall)… and that apartment of the woman’s was really a suite at Club San Souci on the North Coast where an aunt was the resident piano player for years.

And of course, the beautiful Dunn’s River Falls up by Ocho Rios on the North Coast  where Honey Rider emerges from the sea with her sea shells.   A place we frequented on the weekends about an hour and a half drive through the mountains to get to it from Kingston.

So thank you Dr No, for the refresher deep dive into the significant places in my childhood where my ecological identity was being established. The land still owns me…

I learned just before writing this on Monday in my writing group that Jamaica had a 5.6 Magnitude earthquake (on October 30), the strongest felt on the island in 20 years… the epicenter on the south east coast at a place called Content. I know Content. And the funny thing is that I knew the few days prior to the earthquake that there was an increased threat level for earthquakes somewhere on the planet due to certain planetary alignments. I follow the interesting research of the Solar System Geometry Research Institute that “ monitors geometry between celestial bodies related to seismic activity.” I think on some level we can hear within ourselves the voice of the earth.