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The pull of dancehall and reggae music
DIANE ABBOTT
Sunday, November 01, 2009
The London Film Festival, one of the most important film festivals in the world, was held last week. One of the highlights was a film called Made in Jamaica, which showcases the best of reggae and dancehall music. It also attempts to explain how reggae became a worldwide phenomenon.
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| DIANE ABBOTT |
The film begins with the death of dancehall artiste Gerald "Bogle" Levy. We see footage of him performing. We then hear of his death from a Jamaican newscast. The film shows government ministers, community leaders and musicians attending his funeral. And a eulogist intones, "We are a great people and we will be great again. Our music is what puts Jamaica on the map. It will not come from killing each other."
The film attempts to weave together reggae with a cultural and political analysis of its origins.
As an extended reggae music video, the film is superlative. It features a galaxy of star musicians including Bunny Wailer, Toots (of the Maytals), Sly and Robbie, Gregory Isaacs, Capleton, Bounty Killer, Elephant Man, Third World, Tanya Stephens and Lady Saw. All the critics comment on their wonderful performances.
The film also draws the contrast between old-school reggae, with its socially conscious lyrics, and the violent nature and sexual explicitness of dancehall. Some old-school stars make their views known. Third World guitarist Stephen Coore says to his musician son Shiah, "There is so much frivolous music out there, when the world is in so much turmoil." Bunny Wailer comments on the current levels of violence in Jamaica: "We have moulded our chains into guns."
Many film critics say that the female performers came over as the funniest and most intelligent. Lady Saw is refreshingly blunt about her reason for adopting a sexually explicit act. She said that her career was going nowhere until she discovered that "sex sells".
However, critics agree that where the film falls short is in its lack of social and political analyses, with most saying that it lacks a coherent structure (one critic describes it as "shapeless"). The lack of analysis may be because the director, Jerome Laperrousaz, is French and consequently has difficulty getting under the surface of Jamaican society. On the one hand, he is clearly fascinated with Jamaica and its music - nearly 30 years ago he made a documentary, Prisoners in the Street, about the Third World band. But, on the other hand, he does not appear to have much knowledge about Jamaica's history and politics.
Regardless of how much he loves the music, Laperrousaz never understands much of what is said to him. This is evident in the fact that he has given his film subtitles. This seems to suggest that the director himself finds Jamaican society unintelligible. Some critics have mocked the subtitles. A Canadian film critic said, "Made in Jamaica gave me plenty of opportunity to laugh at the subtitle use. Most Torontonians should have enough exposure to island culture to be able to cut through patois to some extent. So when a mourner is interviewed at the funeral of a Jamaican dancehall star named Bogle, I could plainly hear him say something like 'I do not have words to express how I feel.' However the subtitle reads, 'He was a great man.'"
The film has been screened at the Toronto and Cannes film festivals as well as London. And, regardless of its flaws, the film proves once again that Jamaican culture and music is a draw all over the world.
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