Mark Clennon receives critical acclaim for his feature film debut at TIFF

Credit to Author: Vivien Fellegi| Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:31:52 +0000

Jamaican-born Canadian musician turned actor Mark Clennon featured as a Rising Star at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Mark Clennon recalls dancing with every fibre of his being — leaping, twisting, twirling — as a seven-year-old in Jamaica. “I was looking for something,” recalls the adult musician, actor and poet. “And music just filled that void.”

But the ballet classes almost didn’t happen. “Jamaica is very macho,” says Clennon. “Dance was considered not the most masculine.”

Well-meaning relatives prodded Clennon’s mother to deny him his dream. But she didn’t waver. “He’s gonna dance, I don’t care what you say,” she insisted. This would be just the first of many obstacles Clennon would have to overcome to realize his true essence.

Growing up in Jamaica was a “complicated” experience, says Clennon. His childhood was idyllic — he recalls playing cards, going to the beach and singing along with his musical family, with a saxophone player for a father and a grandmother who sang in a choir. Long before he could articulate the urge, Clennon looked to the universal language of music to express himself. By age seven Clennon was banging around the piano and “making stuff up”, and his mother enrolled him in piano lessons. Around the same time, he began the dance classes that would help to mold his moves and sharpen his stage presence.

But once the gay teenager hit adolescence, life in the ultra-religious country grew tougher. LGBTQ folk were unwelcome in this space, and Clennon was bullied and beaten up. Worse, the environment turned him against himself.

It would take him years to loosen the residue of “shame and guilt” which clung to his conscience. (Since that time, Jamaica has grown more progressive, says Clennon.)

When he was 15 years old, Clennon’s mother moved to Florida to study nursing, and he joined his mom after she graduated. Initially thrilled by the adventure, Clennon never fully assimilated into the U.S., a country where h
saw “an undercurrent of xenophobia,” At the age of 21, he struck out for Toronto, a city where he saw opportunities in the entertainment field.

Encountering people from all walks of life, Clennon instantly felt at home in his adopted land. The ubiquitous Jamaican restaurants and festivals also helped him feel at home.

“Something really struck a chord with me,” he says. “I felt like I belonged.”

But he still struggled to find balance between his Jamaican self and the new, Canadian elements in his being. “There’s this ambiguity and in-between space that you have to live in,” he says.

In Canada, he didn’t understand certain aspects of North American pop culture. But when he visited Jamaica, he also felt out of place. “The dialect might not sound as authentic, or I didn’t know the trendy new songs” he says.

Clennon poured this feeling of alienation into his works, including the aptly named record Foreign, as well as a book of poetry with the same title. Over the years, his ever-evolving sound reflected this duality, veering from North American pop to a more Jamaican sound with dancehall, reggae and R&B influences.

Toronto also helped Clennon step into his sexuality. Over the years, his encounters with a rich array of sexual expressions helped him shed the religious condemnation that he grew up with. “I’ve gotten more confident in my identity,” says Clennon.

This mature self-acceptance is reflected in the single Kingston (2022), Clennon’s most personal piece of music to date. The video made history depicting the first romance between a same sex couple shot in Jamaica’s capital.

The tender love story dispels myths about the LGBTQ community in Clennon’s homeland. “The whole idea and message is something I’m very proud of,” he says.

Clennon’s newfound equilibrium has also allowed him to be vulnerable in other arenas, including acting. The consummate performer has always enjoyed roleplaying, but it wasn’t until he met filmmaker M.H. Murray that he began to take the profession seriously. The director was impressed with Clennon’s talent and vivacity. “You’re too energetic not to bean actor,” he told his young protégé.

Clennon went on to star in the director’s short film, Ghost, about a gay musician called Ben whose date disappears after the two share a night together. But it wasn’t until his next role in the film I Don’t Know Who You Are, that Clennon really went out on a limb. In this movie, featured in the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, Clennon reprises his character from Ghost. In the gritty sequel, Ben is sexually assaulted, potentially exposed to HIV, and tries to scrounge together the money for the expensive medication to protect against the virus.

Clennon was thrilled to be offered the role which reflected his Jamaican heritage as well as his sexual orientation.

But the process proved to be more daunting than he had anticipated. Processing his character’s pain was overwhelming. In the movie, the lead character Ben feels shamed by the attack, losing his voice and his sense of self (reflected in the title I Don’t Know Who You Are). At the end of each day’s shoot Clennon would be utterly drained. It was definitely a rough experience,” he says.

But the experience was worth every bit of effort. “It’s definitely changed me,” says its star. First of all, the plot brought home to Clennon his own privilege — had he been in his character’s circumstances, the actor would have simply whipped out his credit card and paid for the treatment. Clennon was also featured in the festival’s annual “Rising Stars” program, a networking and development program for emerging actors.

The movie also helped to overcome Clennon’s fear of offending others through his depiction of gay characters. “My family’s gonna see this, what are they going to think?” he had worried initially.

But by the time the movie wrapped, he had overcome these fears. “What I realized is that there are going to be people who are going to be alienated regardless,” says Clennon. “You can’t please everyone.”

Today Clennon is working on his most revealing album to date. The record will focus on his LGBTQ upbringing in Jamaica and the resulting loneliness and trauma. Clennon hopes to share his unique perspective with others who feel on the margins. “Just knowing that [there’s] one person…feels less alone and less afraid, [it] feels really good,” says Clennon.

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