# Perry Henzell

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**Perry Henzell** (7 March 1936 – 30 November 2006) was a Jamaican director. He directed the first Jamaican feature film, *[The Harder They Come](/source/The_Harder_They_Come)* (1972), co-written by [Trevor D. Rhone](/source/Trevor_D._Rhone) and starring [Jimmy Cliff](/source/Jimmy_Cliff).[1]

## Life and career

Henzell, whose ancestors included [Huguenot](/source/Huguenot) [glassblowers](/source/Glassblowing) and an old [English](/source/England) family who had made their fortune growing sugar cane on [Antigua](/source/Antigua),[2] was born in [Annotto Bay](/source/Annotto_Bay), [Saint Mary Parish](/source/Saint_Mary_Parish,_Jamaica), Jamaica,[3] and grew up on the Caymanas sugar-cane estate near [Kingston](/source/Kingston,_Jamaica).[4] He was sent to [Shrewsbury School](/source/Shrewsbury_School) in the United Kingdom at the age of 14 and later attended [McGill University](/source/McGill_University) in [Montreal](/source/Montreal), Canada, in 1953 and 1954.[5] He then dropped out of this school, choosing instead to [hitchhike](/source/Hitchhike) around [Europe](/source/Europe). He eventually got work as a [stagehand](/source/Stagehand) for [BBC television](/source/BBC_television) in London.[1] He returned in the 1950s to Jamaica, where he directed advertisements for some years until he began work on *The Harder They Come* with co-writer [Trevor D. Rhone](/source/Trevor_D._Rhone).[6]

In 1965, Henzell married Sally Densham.[1]

Henzell also shot some footage for what was planned as his next film, *No Place Like Home*, in *Harder's* aftermath in 1974, but he went broke before he could finish the film. Fed up by this, and the lack of finance for further production, he went on to become a writer, publishing his first novel, *Power Game*, in 1982.[7] Both were meant to complete a planned trilogy of films centring on [Ivanhoe Martin](/source/Ivanhoe_Martin). The footage for *No Place Like Home* was lost. Years later, he came across editing tapes in a lab in New York. Just to have a sense of completion, he worked on the project. When he showed it to a few friends, their response was enthusiastic. He eventually was able to retrieve the original footage.

A rough cut of *No Place Like Home*, which features music from [Bob Marley](/source/Bob_Marley), [Toots and the Maytals](/source/Toots_and_the_Maytals), [The Three Degrees](/source/The_Three_Degrees), and [Marcia Griffiths](/source/Marcia_Griffiths), was screened for the public at the 31st annual [Toronto International Film Festival](/source/Toronto_International_Film_Festival) in September 2006[2] at the Cumberland Theatre; it was sold out. Film leads [Carl Bradshaw](/source/Carl_Bradshaw_(actor)) (*The Harder They Come*, *Smile Orange*, *Countryman*) and Susan O'Meara attended and answered audience questions with Henzell after the screening. The film was also screened at the Flashpoint Film Festival at the beginning of December 2006 in [Negril](/source/Negril). (A different [film of the same name](/source/No_Place_Like_Home_(2006_film)), a documentary about Hurricane Katrina, was also released in 2006.) A fully restored version was premiered in 2019.[8] The documentary *Perry Henzell: A Filmmaker’s Odyssey*, directed by David Garonzik and Arthur Gorson, traces the journey to bring *No Place Like Home* to the big screen.[9]

Henzell had continued to work after being diagnosed in 2000 with [cancer](/source/Cancer).[2] He died from it on 30 November 2006.[3]

## Further reading

- Jonathan Ali, ["It came after The Harder They Come: The story of Perry Henzell’s No Place Like Home"](https://www.watershed.co.uk/articles/it-came-after-harder-they-come-story-perry-henzells-no-place-home), *Twelve30 Collective*, 29 July 2021.
- Fierro, Generoso (October 9, 2019). ["No Place Like Home"](https://ink19.com/2019/10/magazine/screen-reviews/gg34e4-no-place-like-home). *Ink 19*. Retrieved December 3, 2025.

## References

1. Salewicz, Chris (2 December 2006). ["Perry Henzell - Obituaries, News"](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/perry-henzell-426679.html). *[The Independent](/source/The_Independent)*. Retrieved 2011-04-13.

1. Katz, David (March–April 2007). ["Perry Henzell: the master"](https://www.caribbean-beat.com/issue-84/perry-henzell-master#axzz7ysUu4PhH). *[Caribbean Beat](/source/Caribbean_Beat)*. No. 84. Retrieved 14 April 2023.

1. Henry, Krista (1 December 2006). ["Perry Henzell dies at 70"](https://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20061201/ent/ent2.html). *Jamaica Gleaner*. Retrieved 1 March 2023.

1. ["Perry Henzell: 1936 - 2006"](https://www.chicagotribune.com/2006/12/03/perry-henzell-1936-2006/). *[Chicago Tribune](/source/Chicago_Tribune)*. 3 December 2006. Retrieved 2011-04-13.

1. ["The Harder They Come filmmaker dies"](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15977318). *[MSNBC](/source/MSNBC)*. Associated Press. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20120928221904/http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/15977318) 2012-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2011-04-13.

1. Katz, David (4 December 2006). ["Obituary: Perry Henzell"](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/dec/04/guardianobituaries.obituaries1). *[The Guardian](/source/The_Guardian)*. Retrieved 2011-04-12.

1. ["Perry Henzell, 70, Filmmaker of 'The Harder They Come,' Dies"](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/05/obituaries/05henzell.html). *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)*. Associated Press. 5 December 2006. Retrieved 2011-04-13.

1. Johnson, Richard (10 November 2019). ["A labour of love: Lost Henzell film restored and premièred at former home"](https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/a-labour-of-love/). *[Jamaica Observer](/source/Jamaica_Observer)*. Retrieved 14 April 2023.

1. ["perry henzell: a filmmaker's odyssey"](https://ttfilmfestival.com/film/perry-henzell-a-filmmakers-odyssey). *ttfilmfestival.com*. 2020.

## External links

- [Perry Henzell](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0378320/) at IMDb
- [No Place Like Home](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0839928/) at IMDb
- [Toronto Film Festival Profile of *No Place Like Home*](https://web.archive.org/web/20061013065624/http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/films_schedules/films_description.asp?id=207)
- ["Perry Henzell on The Harder They Come and Ancestral Spirit"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mck-vGQNXcU). Perry Henzell interviewed in 1988 by director Stafford Ashani, for Reggae Strong.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Perry Henzell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Henzell) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Henzell?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.