Algerian-born French director Tony Gatlif specialises in road movies featuring the music and culture mainly of the Roma. This is one of his earlier films, from 1997, set in Romania, where a young French man, searching for a female singer who was a favourite of his father, ends up living in a Roma village, and coming into close contact with their culture while dealing with issues of prejudice that cut both ways. The story is secondary, the music magnificent.
Djam
Another Tony Gatlif film, this time from 2017, and set in Greece and Turkey, with a background of Rebetiko, the down-home folk music common to both cultures. Djam, the daughter of the operator of a small tourist boat, is dispatched by her father to Istanbul, to acquire a replacement for a broken part of his boat engine. There she also acquires a travelling companion called Avril, and the road home goes wildly astray. As usual story takes second place to great music.
Dance Craze
When The Specials appeared in 1979, their revival of Jamaican ska with a tinge of punk energy was a shot in the arm to the UK music scene of the time, and within a year a succession of bands debuted via their 2 Tone label. This concert film was shot in 1980, featuring The Specials, Madness, The Beat, The Selecter, The Bodysnatchers and Bad Manners, who each appear one song at a time. A rare chance to see all these bands in action, especially The original Specials with Jerry Dammers.
Dread Beat An'Blood
Linton Kwesi Johnson, or LKJ as he is commonly known, created the profession of Dub Poet, reciting his poems over a roots reggae beat. This short film was made in 1979, when he was on the point of releasing his first album “Dread Beat and Blood.” We see the as yet unknown young poet, who immigrated to London from Jamaica at the age of 11, also working as a writer and editor of Race Today, a magazine combating discrimination.Shown with Babylon.
Rockers
A low budget Jamaican film from 1978, which almost looks like a documentary, as it features a number of well known reggae musicians including Gregory Isaacs, Burning Spear, Jacob Miller et al, playing themselves. Drummer Horsemouth Wallace rides his motorbike around Kingston trying to become a record distributor. The story is negligible, but the music more than makes up for it.
