Keeling's Caribbean Showcase
/Never before seen footage from the vaults of Keeling Beckford.
Reggae Heroes on Parade '93
Dir. Keeling Beckford (1993) 58 min.
Tappa Zukie gathered a lineup of reggae heroes to perform at Jamaica's famous dancehall, Coney Park, and Keeling was there, as always, to catch it on film. Only the greatest on this one: Sugar Minott, Johnnie Clark, Brigadiere Jerry, Melodians, U-Roy, Big Youth, Mykal Rose, and Tappa Zukie.
8:30 pm
Classic Films of the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora
Babylon
Dir. Franco Rosso, 1980, 91 min.
Babylon is set in South London at the start of the ’80s, a time when reggae music was at its peak, along with a distinctively British brand of xenophobia and racism that saw American boxer Marvin Hagler pelted with bottles at Wembley after beating Alan ‘I’ll never lose to a black man’ Minter. The plot concerns Blue, lead chanter for Ital Lion Sound (played by Aswad singer and former Double Decker Brinsley Forde), in the run-up to a competition with a rival crew led by Jah Shaka (who appears as himself). Over the course of the film Blue socialises with his friends and clashes with his family, employer, and a local clan of racists, before going on a spiritual and physical journey through small hours London where he encounters a series of trials and temptations that set up the film’s violent climax.
