Delroy Lindo has made his directorial debut with Jabari’s People, an intergenerational family drama that recently completed a 22-day production shoot in Kingston, Jamaica. The film brings together an ensemble cast including Winston Duke, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Wendell Pierce and rising actor Seyi Andes-Pelumi, alongside Lindo himself in a leading role.
The narrative follows Jabari, a defiant Brooklyn teenager who is sent to live with his estranged grandparents in Jamaica’s Blue Mountains following his mother’s death. Written by Daoud Abeid and Dakhil Hausif, the story explores themes of grief, family identity and inheritance across three generations, set between Brooklyn and Jamaica. Andes-Pelumi plays the titular character, Duke portrays his father, Jean-Baptiste is cast as the grandmother, and Lindo takes on the role of the grandfather, with Pierce appearing as a doctor in the family’s New York community.
Lindo’s journey to directing the project spans more than a decade. He first encountered the script in 2015 as a potential acting role in an independent production that did not materialize. When rights to the screenplay became available in 2021, he acquired them with the intention of directing. Lindo expressed that the material resonated deeply with him as a person of Jamaican descent and that he hopes the film will present an authentic portrayal of Jamaica, including its spiritual dimensions.
The production was led by Lindo through his company Mudtop Productions, with producers Robert A. Maylor, Lena Cordina and Natalie Thompson, alongside executive producers Susan Rockefeller, Regina K. Scully and Melony Lewis. Lindo noted that transitioning from actor to director required significant adjustment, particularly in learning to remain engaged with crew members on technical aspects of scenes rather than withdrawing between takes. IAG is handling distribution rights for the feature.
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