Contact: Lucy Simpson Email: lucy.simpson@mmu.ac.uk

A festival of crime films chosen by crime experts to give an alternative take on the contemporary problem of crime, justice and punishment in the 21st Century.

This festival’s guest pick is by Ian MacDonald, a former Assistant Chief Constable of Police:

THE HARDER THEY COME

This 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and starring Jimmy Cliff is said to have “brought reggae to the world” and features songs by Cliff, Desmond Dekker and The Maytals.

A struggling reggae singer falls foul of a manipulative producer and resorts to petty crime to make ends meet. He deals marijuana and becomes a local folk hero after killing some abusive cops.

Death in paradise? – Ian will draw on his experience as a policing advisor to the Jamaican Government to shed light on petty crime, police corruption and police legitimacy in the Carribean.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ian MacDonald served with the police in Liverpool for most of his career and was an Assistant Chief Constable at the National Police Staff College. He was an officer during the Toxteth riots in 1981 and was a policing advisor to the Jamaican Government from 1987 to ’91. He monitored the South African policing of KwaZulu-Natal during the election of Nelson Mandela. He worked for the Foreign Office in Venezuela on community policing and in Uruguay in combatting police corruption, and was an assistant director in Immigration Enforcement and Intelligence in the North of England. He has guest lectured at Manchester Met and now teaches at the University of Bolton and is a playwright.