Tweet
*BAMcinématek presents Do the Reggae, a 14-film series
Celebrating Jamaica’s music and the 50th anniversary of the nation’s independence, Aug 2—6
Opens with new hi-def restoration of Ted Bafaloukos’Rockers in first NY
theatrical showing in more than a decade
Closes on Jamaican Independence Day (Aug 6) withOnePeople, the country’s
official 50th anniversary doc, premiering simultaneously in Kingston and
London
Live performance by Deadly Dragon Sound System featuring legendary DJ
Ranking Joe and special guests Q&As to be announced
The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and
BAMcinématek.*
*Brooklyn, NY/Jul 11, 2012*—From Thursday, August 2 through Monday, August
6—the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence—BAMcinématek presents *Do
the Reggae*, a 14-film series dedicated to the country’s unique and widely
influential musical tradition. Focusing on vintage films from 1971 to 1983,
the series opens with the Trenchtown-set *Rockers* (1978), Ted Bafaloukos’
rousing Rasta adaptation of De Sica’s *The Bicycle Thief*. Also screening
are seminal nonfiction exploration *Land of Look Behind* by Alan Greenberg,
three parts of the British series *Deep Roots Music*, Jeremy Marre’s *Roots
Rock Reggae*, and possibly the earliest feature film on reggae, Horace
Ové’s *Reggae*. The series is named after Toots and the Maytals’ eponymous
song <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_IaoQxZMQ4>—the first to use the word
“reggae.”
Reggae was born in the late 60s from previous genres ska and rock steady,
all stemming from Jamaica’s folk music, mento. Distinguished by the offbeat
accent and socially conscious influences including the Rastafarian faith,
reggae is a deeply experimental and influential musical form,
single-handedly paving the way for rap, hip-hop, and the remix (invented in
the early 70s in Jamaica). Through decades of political unrest in Jamaica
and racial violence against Caribbean immigrants in Europe and North
America, reggae in all its forms has endured as an essential conduit for
social protest, individual expression, and spiritual exploration.
Although Perry Henzell’s *The Harder They Come* (1972—Aug 3) is widely
considered the watershed film about reggae, Ted Bafaloukos’ *Rockers* (Aug
2), showing theatrically for the first time in New York in over a decade in
a new hi-def restoration, is the original artifact of Rasta cinema. The
only feature by Bafaloukos, Errol Morris’ longtime production designer, *
Rockers* is essentially *The Bicycle Thief* in a tenement yard and follows
renowned drummer Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace playing himself in this loose
yet subtly powerful portrait of scraping by in the shanty town. Both a
celebration of Jamaican music and culture and an eye-opening document of
the hand-to-mouth life of musicians, *Rockers*’ “nonstop soundtrack…and
mountaintop prophesies that reveal the spiritual roots of reggae establish
what the music business means to impoverished islanders and how the
drug-fueled religious ceremony behind the music matters even more than
money” (Noel Murray, *The Onion AV Club*). As a special bonus, *Rockers* will
be followed by “Downtown Top Ranking in a BAMstyle,” a party at BAMcafé
with Deadly Dragon Sound System and featuring legendary DJ Ranking Joe on
the mic.
Henzell’s aforementioned classic pulp tale *The Harder They Come* features
Jimmy Cliff as island outlaw Ivanhoe Martin. Before Bob Marley made it big
stateside, Cliff took the midnight movie circuit by storm, unveiling this
new reggae sound to American audiences. Based on the namesake Jamaican
bandit and folk hero from the 40s, the film not only made Cliff a star, but
tells the story of reggae in a microcosm: the country boy going to
Kingston to make it big, the push-and-pull of the Rasta spirituality and
rude-boy swagger, the greed and mafia tactics of shady record producers,
the ganja (of course), and a love for the movies, with Cliff’s bad-boy
persona crystallizing at a rowdy screening of a spaghetti western (see *Buck
and the Preacher* below for more on the western genre in reggae).
The gems of the series are its documentaries, and possibly the greatest
nonfiction portrait of Jamaica is Alan Greenberg’s *Land of Look
Behind* (1982—Aug
3), an exquisitely profound meditation on the island—from its Rasta tenets
to its still-endemic colonialist tendencies and history of tragic political
violence. Greenberg, who worked with Werner Herzog on *Heart of Glass*,
took the German master’s longtime cinematographer Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein to
Jamaica. The pair documented a country in flux after the death of Bob
Marley, including awe-inspiring shots of the funeral procession (used
liberally in the Kevin McDonald’s new documentary *Marley*). The result is
one of the most poetic travelogues ever committed to celluloid, as well as
an indictment of a police state rife with violence and poverty. One of Jim
Jarmusch’s favorite films (he called it “striking... beautiful...
near-perfect”), *Land of Look Behind* is a chilling, heartbreaking, and
stirring small masterpiece, and Greenberg’s only film.
Famed music documentary producer Jeremy Marre (*James Brown: Soul Survivor*)
went to the island for a mere snapshot of the music scene at its height and
returned with *Roots Rock Reggae*(1977—Aug 5), a unique hour-long document
most famous for rare footage of influential producer Lee “Scratch” Perry
gesticulating wildly behind the boards at his celebrated Black Ark studio.
Marre also trains his lens on reggae forefather Vincent Chin’s renowned
record store, Randy’s; harmony trios The Abyssinians and The Mighty
Diamonds live at their peak; DJs U-Roy and U-Brown riding the riddims
(rapping); and Inner Circle at their most famous, living high up in the
hills of Kingston away from the “sufferation.” Legendary reggae producer
Clive Chin (son of Vincent Chin) will appear for a Q&A after the screening.
Howard Johnson’s *Deep Roots Music* (1983—Aug 5) is the closest thing to a
comprehensive documentary on reggae, ending in the dancehall era of the
early 80s. Incisively narrated by none other than DJ Mikey Dread (The
Clash’s producer and reggae mentor) and shot by award-winning DP Roger
Deakins (*No Country for Old Men*), this seminal, multi-part history of
reggae is no PBS-style primer. Letting the music speak for “i-self,” this
British series lingers on performances and evokes the languid, severe
island life while honestly exploring the spiritual and militant aspects of
reggae. Individual episode descriptions are listed below.
One of the most revelatory films in the entire series, and quite possibly
the first feature ever made on reggae, is master director Horace Ové’s
documentary on the genre, *Reggae*, which has not shown in the US in
decades. The centerpiece of Ové’s film is a 1970 UK concert featuring Toots
and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, the Pioneers, John Holt, and others. For
such an early exploration,*Reggae* is remarkably prescient for
understanding both the societal impact and force of the music, with an
empathy for both black and white youth culture. The Trinidadian-born
auteur, who later explored Black Power in Britain with *Pressure*, is not
only an incisive interviewer with players in the British reggae scene, but
also lets the music explode, complemented by beautiful compositions and
camerawork and punctuated by playful, rhythmic, and ironic editing by
Franco Rosso (*Babylon*—Aug 4).
The series features numerous other essential but rarely screened works in
the genre: *Babylon*(1981), Franco Rosso’s cult feature on sound systems in
Britain; Jerry Stein’s *Word, Sound and Power *(1980—Aug 5), a portrait of
seminal session band Soul Syndicate, which Greil Marcus calls “the closest
film audiences are likely to get to modern Jamaican music and to the ideas,
experiences and emotions behind [it];” James P. Lewis’ *Heartland
Reggae* (1980—also
Aug 5), which documents the most important live reggae event of its era,
the One Love Peace Concert, featuring Bob Marley in his first appearance
after his attempted assassination; and Dickie Jobson’s*Countryman *(1982—Aug
4), a delightfully campy Rasta fisherman cult political adventure. And, as
a special tribute to great 70s DJ I-Roy, *Do the Reggae* includes his
favorite film (and the subject of an eponymous
song<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGrth-pU-JQ>
), *Buck and the Preacher* (1972—Aug 4), an antebellum black western
starring Sidney Poitier (also making his directorial debut) and Harry
Belafonte as the title characters, guiding a wagon train of newly freed
slaves west to frontier exodus—possibly the Rastafarian-est western ever
made.
*Do the Reggae* closes with the world premiere of *OnePeople*, a
crowd-sourced documentary comprising video submissions from individuals
around the world expressing—through song, dance, poetry, landscapes,
artwork, and stories—what Jamaica means to them. Produced by Justine
Henzell (daughter of Perry Henzell), this Jamaica-50 project will premiere
simultaneously in London and Kingston, exemplifying the nation’s motto by
uniting the work of many filmmakers into the collective film of one people.
*Press screenings to be announced.*
*For screeners or press information, please contact *
*Gabriele Caroti at 718.724.8024 / **gcaroti@bam.org** *
*Lisa Thomas at 718.724.8023 / lthomas@bam.org *
*DOWNLOAD FULL PRESS RELEASE AND
SCHEDULE*<http://bam.box.com/s/3c9a8c957344beefaf18>
*Brooklyn Academy of Music*
Peter Jay Sharp Building
30 Lafayette Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1486
*BAM.org <http://www.bam.org/>* 718.636.4129 (phone)
718.857.2021 (fax)
*Press@BAM.org <press@bam.org>**BAMcinématek Publicity*
Gabriele Caroti
Lisa Thomas
Celebrating Jamaica’s music and the 50th anniversary of the nation’s independence, Aug 2—6
Opens with new hi-def restoration of Ted Bafaloukos’Rockers in first NY
theatrical showing in more than a decade
Closes on Jamaican Independence Day (Aug 6) withOnePeople, the country’s
official 50th anniversary doc, premiering simultaneously in Kingston and
London
Live performance by Deadly Dragon Sound System featuring legendary DJ
Ranking Joe and special guests Q&As to be announced
The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and
BAMcinématek.*
*Brooklyn, NY/Jul 11, 2012*—From Thursday, August 2 through Monday, August
6—the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence—BAMcinématek presents *Do
the Reggae*, a 14-film series dedicated to the country’s unique and widely
influential musical tradition. Focusing on vintage films from 1971 to 1983,
the series opens with the Trenchtown-set *Rockers* (1978), Ted Bafaloukos’
rousing Rasta adaptation of De Sica’s *The Bicycle Thief*. Also screening
are seminal nonfiction exploration *Land of Look Behind* by Alan Greenberg,
three parts of the British series *Deep Roots Music*, Jeremy Marre’s *Roots
Rock Reggae*, and possibly the earliest feature film on reggae, Horace
Ové’s *Reggae*. The series is named after Toots and the Maytals’ eponymous
song <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_IaoQxZMQ4>—the first to use the word
“reggae.”
Reggae was born in the late 60s from previous genres ska and rock steady,
all stemming from Jamaica’s folk music, mento. Distinguished by the offbeat
accent and socially conscious influences including the Rastafarian faith,
reggae is a deeply experimental and influential musical form,
single-handedly paving the way for rap, hip-hop, and the remix (invented in
the early 70s in Jamaica). Through decades of political unrest in Jamaica
and racial violence against Caribbean immigrants in Europe and North
America, reggae in all its forms has endured as an essential conduit for
social protest, individual expression, and spiritual exploration.
Although Perry Henzell’s *The Harder They Come* (1972—Aug 3) is widely
considered the watershed film about reggae, Ted Bafaloukos’ *Rockers* (Aug
2), showing theatrically for the first time in New York in over a decade in
a new hi-def restoration, is the original artifact of Rasta cinema. The
only feature by Bafaloukos, Errol Morris’ longtime production designer, *
Rockers* is essentially *The Bicycle Thief* in a tenement yard and follows
renowned drummer Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace playing himself in this loose
yet subtly powerful portrait of scraping by in the shanty town. Both a
celebration of Jamaican music and culture and an eye-opening document of
the hand-to-mouth life of musicians, *Rockers*’ “nonstop soundtrack…and
mountaintop prophesies that reveal the spiritual roots of reggae establish
what the music business means to impoverished islanders and how the
drug-fueled religious ceremony behind the music matters even more than
money” (Noel Murray, *The Onion AV Club*). As a special bonus, *Rockers* will
be followed by “Downtown Top Ranking in a BAMstyle,” a party at BAMcafé
with Deadly Dragon Sound System and featuring legendary DJ Ranking Joe on
the mic.
Henzell’s aforementioned classic pulp tale *The Harder They Come* features
Jimmy Cliff as island outlaw Ivanhoe Martin. Before Bob Marley made it big
stateside, Cliff took the midnight movie circuit by storm, unveiling this
new reggae sound to American audiences. Based on the namesake Jamaican
bandit and folk hero from the 40s, the film not only made Cliff a star, but
tells the story of reggae in a microcosm: the country boy going to
Kingston to make it big, the push-and-pull of the Rasta spirituality and
rude-boy swagger, the greed and mafia tactics of shady record producers,
the ganja (of course), and a love for the movies, with Cliff’s bad-boy
persona crystallizing at a rowdy screening of a spaghetti western (see *Buck
and the Preacher* below for more on the western genre in reggae).
The gems of the series are its documentaries, and possibly the greatest
nonfiction portrait of Jamaica is Alan Greenberg’s *Land of Look
Behind* (1982—Aug
3), an exquisitely profound meditation on the island—from its Rasta tenets
to its still-endemic colonialist tendencies and history of tragic political
violence. Greenberg, who worked with Werner Herzog on *Heart of Glass*,
took the German master’s longtime cinematographer Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein to
Jamaica. The pair documented a country in flux after the death of Bob
Marley, including awe-inspiring shots of the funeral procession (used
liberally in the Kevin McDonald’s new documentary *Marley*). The result is
one of the most poetic travelogues ever committed to celluloid, as well as
an indictment of a police state rife with violence and poverty. One of Jim
Jarmusch’s favorite films (he called it “striking... beautiful...
near-perfect”), *Land of Look Behind* is a chilling, heartbreaking, and
stirring small masterpiece, and Greenberg’s only film.
Famed music documentary producer Jeremy Marre (*James Brown: Soul Survivor*)
went to the island for a mere snapshot of the music scene at its height and
returned with *Roots Rock Reggae*(1977—Aug 5), a unique hour-long document
most famous for rare footage of influential producer Lee “Scratch” Perry
gesticulating wildly behind the boards at his celebrated Black Ark studio.
Marre also trains his lens on reggae forefather Vincent Chin’s renowned
record store, Randy’s; harmony trios The Abyssinians and The Mighty
Diamonds live at their peak; DJs U-Roy and U-Brown riding the riddims
(rapping); and Inner Circle at their most famous, living high up in the
hills of Kingston away from the “sufferation.” Legendary reggae producer
Clive Chin (son of Vincent Chin) will appear for a Q&A after the screening.
Howard Johnson’s *Deep Roots Music* (1983—Aug 5) is the closest thing to a
comprehensive documentary on reggae, ending in the dancehall era of the
early 80s. Incisively narrated by none other than DJ Mikey Dread (The
Clash’s producer and reggae mentor) and shot by award-winning DP Roger
Deakins (*No Country for Old Men*), this seminal, multi-part history of
reggae is no PBS-style primer. Letting the music speak for “i-self,” this
British series lingers on performances and evokes the languid, severe
island life while honestly exploring the spiritual and militant aspects of
reggae. Individual episode descriptions are listed below.
One of the most revelatory films in the entire series, and quite possibly
the first feature ever made on reggae, is master director Horace Ové’s
documentary on the genre, *Reggae*, which has not shown in the US in
decades. The centerpiece of Ové’s film is a 1970 UK concert featuring Toots
and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, the Pioneers, John Holt, and others. For
such an early exploration,*Reggae* is remarkably prescient for
understanding both the societal impact and force of the music, with an
empathy for both black and white youth culture. The Trinidadian-born
auteur, who later explored Black Power in Britain with *Pressure*, is not
only an incisive interviewer with players in the British reggae scene, but
also lets the music explode, complemented by beautiful compositions and
camerawork and punctuated by playful, rhythmic, and ironic editing by
Franco Rosso (*Babylon*—Aug 4).
The series features numerous other essential but rarely screened works in
the genre: *Babylon*(1981), Franco Rosso’s cult feature on sound systems in
Britain; Jerry Stein’s *Word, Sound and Power *(1980—Aug 5), a portrait of
seminal session band Soul Syndicate, which Greil Marcus calls “the closest
film audiences are likely to get to modern Jamaican music and to the ideas,
experiences and emotions behind [it];” James P. Lewis’ *Heartland
Reggae* (1980—also
Aug 5), which documents the most important live reggae event of its era,
the One Love Peace Concert, featuring Bob Marley in his first appearance
after his attempted assassination; and Dickie Jobson’s*Countryman *(1982—Aug
4), a delightfully campy Rasta fisherman cult political adventure. And, as
a special tribute to great 70s DJ I-Roy, *Do the Reggae* includes his
favorite film (and the subject of an eponymous
song<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGrth-pU-JQ>
), *Buck and the Preacher* (1972—Aug 4), an antebellum black western
starring Sidney Poitier (also making his directorial debut) and Harry
Belafonte as the title characters, guiding a wagon train of newly freed
slaves west to frontier exodus—possibly the Rastafarian-est western ever
made.
*Do the Reggae* closes with the world premiere of *OnePeople*, a
crowd-sourced documentary comprising video submissions from individuals
around the world expressing—through song, dance, poetry, landscapes,
artwork, and stories—what Jamaica means to them. Produced by Justine
Henzell (daughter of Perry Henzell), this Jamaica-50 project will premiere
simultaneously in London and Kingston, exemplifying the nation’s motto by
uniting the work of many filmmakers into the collective film of one people.
*Press screenings to be announced.*
*For screeners or press information, please contact *
*Gabriele Caroti at 718.724.8024 / **gcaroti@bam.org** *
*Lisa Thomas at 718.724.8023 / lthomas@bam.org *
*DOWNLOAD FULL PRESS RELEASE AND
SCHEDULE*<http://bam.box.com/s/3c9a8c957344beefaf18>
*Brooklyn Academy of Music*
Peter Jay Sharp Building
30 Lafayette Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11217-1486
*BAM.org <http://www.bam.org/>* 718.636.4129 (phone)
718.857.2021 (fax)
*Press@BAM.org <press@bam.org>**BAMcinématek Publicity*
Gabriele Caroti
Lisa Thomas
