Dancehall Qween to BRUK OUT

THE world of dancehall music and the dancehall queen contests will be the subject of a documentary titled Bruk Out.

Bruk Out is brainchild of Brooklyn native Cori McKenna, who is director on the project. She readily admits to being drawn to the music and culture of her fellow New Yorkers who had Jamaican ties.

"I would go out and watch the Caribbean parade each year and I was really intrigued by the music and the dancing. I was so inspired that I made some contacts and was invited down to Jamaica which is where I met Big Head, the promoter of the dancehall queen competition in Montego Bay. It all spiralled and now we are about half-way through filming Bruk Out," she told Splash from her base in New York.

According to McKenna, Bruk Out will focus on the offstage lives of some of the girls in the 2014 contest. She will be zeroing-in on girls from Spain, Japan, Jamaica, Italy, New York, and Poland.

Once completed, she hopes the documentary will give audiences an insight into the world of this subculture.

"It is our hope that Bruk Out does for dancehall what the film Rize did for krumping. We want the documentary to offer the uninitiated an opportunity to understand without being judgemental and not just see it as twerking or whatever. We also want to represent the ladies who enter this competition -- give them a voice. It is also our hope that there can be some level of acceptance," said McKenna.

Acceptance and understanding are things that McKenna too came to terms with as she began filming.

"I will admit that the girls seemed intimidating at first. But once I got to hear their stories, I realised that they all had unique reasons for entering these contests. And one has to applaud them for their confidence with their body image and sexuality."

No stranger to the world of film-making, McKenna has been working in the industry for more than a decade, having graduated from the University of California in Los Angeles. She has worked on projects for major media outlets including HBO, but this is her first major solo project.

"We will be filming in Europe during the winter to contrast against the tropical setting in Jamaica. We should be done with editing in June of next year, so we can premiere in August," she said.