The first casting/screen tests for major and supporting roles began yesterday for the upcoming Jamaican film production of the novel JOSEPH - A RASTA REGGAE FABLE. Several professional and amateur actors, as well as singers, turned up at Endless Studios in Cross Roads, Kingston to audition and test. Director BARBARA BLAKE HANNAH says she is interested in testing anyone who thinks they can play a role professionally in this film. Jamaican residence is a necessity.
At last we are proud to be able to offer you a very rare dance which was filmed in 1982 in Moss-Side, Manchester. The film was recently unearthed after 25yrs sat in an attic, unfortunatley the quality of the film isn't great, maybe 6+/10, but the content makes up for this, below is a little sneak preview of the dance which was Baron Turbo Vs Jungleman, the film gives us a rare glimpse into the UK Sound system scene in England 1982, we will soon have a page all about Baron Turbo with some history and buy it now links to to get the dvd so watch the main website for details aswell as more rare films comming soon. It will be on sale for a limited time only and we are only producing small numbers of the dvd.
Enjoy the clips.......
The singer in the above clip is General Jones.......
Reggae musician Lucky Dube was shot dead in a hijacking on Thursday in Rosettenville, Johannesburg police said. Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the incident took place at about 8.20pm when Dube (43) was driving a blue Volkswagen Polo in the Johannesburg suburb. She said Dube was dropping off his son in the area when he was attacked. "His son was already out of the car. When he saw what was happening, he ran to ask for help." The hijackers were still at large. The boy was too traumatised to provide police with any information, Engelbrecht said. Dube, born in Johannesburg on August 3 1964, was named "Lucky" as he was born in poor health and doctors thought he would die, according to Wikipedia. But Dube survived and went on to become a front-line artist in the reggae genre. However, the singer's website, Luckydubemusic.com, says: "Giving birth to a boy was considered a blessing and his mother considered his birth so fortunate that she aptly named him Lucky." He recorded more than 20 albums in his music career, which spanned more than 20 years, according to Luckydubemusic.com. His albums include Rastas Never Die, Think about the Children, Soul Taker and Trinity. His latest, released in 2006, is called Respect. The build-up to this international success, though, started in 1982 with the release of Kudala Ngikuncenga, an album that was not reggae but mbaqanga, a genre that was to serve him well for four more albums until his transition to reggae in 1985. "The change was brought about by the fact that I wanted to reach the world. With mbaqanga I would have been seen as a tourist musician," he told the Mail & Guardian in an interview in 2001. "Don’t waste your time and mine,” a concert promoter told Richard Siluma, Dube’s producer at the time. “No one wants to hear reggae.” By 1987, Dube was the sole reggae star among South African "disco" acts and established music acts such as Brenda Fassie, Stimela and the Soul Brothers. His introduction to the international stage was heartening, such as when he was invited to play at the Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica in 1991. He recalled how the spiritual home of reggae had been waiting for him and his band. "We knew they love the music. They said we remind them of Peter Tosh." On the final evening of the festival they were called back for an encore -- and for another performance the next year. The reggae sensation, who did not drink or smoke cigarettes or marijuana, despite the association of the substance with Rastafarians, had won more than 20 awards for his music contribution locally and internationally. He is the only South African artist to have a record signed to Motown Records, according to Luckydubemusic.com. His reception on the international stage had been mixed, however. European audiences had argued that he sang world music and local audiences felt his music had changed to an extent that it flew over them. This did not seem to bother him. "We have found that locally the audience does not grow with you. People expect me to still be doing Ayobayo, yet that was 1987 and this is 2001," he said in the M&G interview. Dube always had to fend off questions of whether he was Rastafarian. "If Rastafarianism is about having dreadlocks, smoking marijuana and believing that Haile Selassie is God, then I am not Rastafarian. But if it is about political, social and personal consciousness, then, yes, I am," he said. Although his idol was Peter Tosh, he acknowledged the unshakeable influence of the king of reggae, Bob Marley, whom he described as "the reason we know reggae".
I've been wanting to showcase some of the new films comming from FireFly films for a while now, and i think here is the best place to do it so here are trailers from a handful of the films from this unique Jamaica film company, not to be confused with several other film companies going by the same name! i will add some info on these films and add more of there films with trailers shortly.
Better Mus Come
A political Drama by Storm Saulter.
SCOUNDREL
A comedy written and directed by Nile Saulter.
THE CANDY SHOP
A new comedy from director Joel Burke.
TWANG!
The above films have not been officialy released on dvd and i don't know of any plans for a dvd release but i am trying to get more info on this. I'm sure they will become available at some point. All of these films have premieried at the Flashpoint film festival in Negril which was setup by the founding member of Firefly films - Paul Bucknor. The next Flashpoint Film Festival takes place in March 2008 and submissions are being taken right now.
FIREFLY FILMS HISTORY
"Firefly Films was born in 2002 when Creative Director, Paul Bucknor started production on 'Goathead', a romantic comedy, written and directed by Bucknor, set in rural Jamaica. With the need for post-production facilities for 'Goathead', construction of Firefly Studios in Mount James, St Andrew, was initiated and was completed in 2003. The Firefly Films team was complete when young Jamaican filmmakers Storm, Joel Burke and Nile Saulter joined as directors.
In 2005, Firefly Films partnered with The Caves resort in Negril and staged the 1st Flashpoint Film Festival, a forum for new Caribbean films, and set about putting together an appropriate programme. With few new local films available, Firefly Films produced three original Jamaican films for the festival: two short films, 'Bad Lucky' (Joel Burke), and 'Forward' (Nile Saulter), and the feature film, 'Twang!'(Storm). 'Goathead' was also premiered at the festival.
Firefly Films plans to produce a minimum of four films per year, every year for the foreseeable future and will premiere their films at the Flashpoint Film Festival. This, they hope, will encourage more Jamaican filmmakers to produce original films each year. " Text taken from www.go-localjamaica.com
Just a little news about a project i'm working on, we will soon be offering some very rare films forsale on dvd via our website, we have at least 2 in the pipeline which should be appearing on the website before too long, i can't give you any specific details about them right now until things are finalized but what i can say is that one of the films will be a never before seen dance from a UK Sound system/s from 1982 which has some excellent bits in, the other film/s will also be from the early 80's never before been released on DVD and shown only once on TV back in the early 80's, this will be a documentary concerning Rastafari, these films are not circulating so i'm very happy to be able to offer you these very special films in conjunction with there makers. We will be looking out for more similar opportunities in the future to try and make available some of the old hard to find classic reggae+jamaican films available Watch this blog for updates on this......
Some rare Bob Marley footage has appeared on ebay, known as the Tanza footage. Produced by filmmaker Clive Davidson, it was shot in 1975 at the Manhattan Center in New York using three 16mm film cameras. with a starting price of $10,000 and an unknown reserve amount, we can only guess what this will fetch but unfortunatley without the Marleys estate permission to use the footage i doubt the film will be of any commercial use, and permission from the marley estate to use film like this is going to be very difficult to get going by past attempts. There is a low quality version flying round on bit torrent so the description says! if it's the one i'm thinking of it's been around in low quality for a long time, will be interesting to see how much it goes for, link below:
Director Cess Silvera is in the process of making the sequel to his film Shottas, the film will feature Ky-manai Marley again as Biggs, and also Mad Cobra gets a part. Cess Silvera has also been working on a film/documentary? about methamphetamine in iowa called "Mad Dog" so this will be interesting.
There is to be a sequel to the film Countryman, not too sure on the name of the film yet but i know that the star of the film countryman is filming for a new film called "Curse of The Golden idol" right now so perhaps this is the sequal, i will post up more news as i get it.
The dvd release of the film "Coping In Babylon" has been delayed until early December, so we will have to wait a little longer for this one.
Jack Millers "Dreadlock Rock" is due out on dvd anytime now, soon as it goes on sale i will post up.
There is a new reality style show to be screened on BET in the USA this month all about Ky-Mani Marley and his new album, the show titled "Livin The Life Of Marley" will air each week on Fridays, where you will be able to witness the extraordinary life of reggae legend Bob Marley's son, the show premieres on October 26, 2007 at 10:00 pm ET/PT. Be sure to catch the other two brand new documentary styled series which air this month on BET, these are both mentioned in the new releases list of my website www.reggaefilms.co.uk
I've not been using this blog regularly but have decided to link it to my website as i really need some kind of blog to write about all the film news, so here it is, my new blog! Hopefully i will start keeping you all up to date with all the latest reggae+jamaican film news on this page, so watch this space, and please feel free to comment.......
