This is a very special event, as Jeremy Marre, the director of the amazing documentary REGGAE BRITANNIA, will be there on the night, and the film will be followed by the awesome DJing from the infamous Funky Butt Club!

 

7.30PM: FILM: REGGAE BRITANNIA + Q&A
(Dir: Jeremy Marre, 2010)

Marre's stunning history of Reggae in Britain includes Aswad, Laurel Aitkin, Misty in Roots, The Cimarons, Matumbi, The Specials and more.

ABOUT THE FILM

Showing how it came from Jamaica in the 1960s to influence, over the next 20 years, both British music and society, the documentary includes major artists and performances from that era, including Big Youth, Max Romeo, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jerry Dammers and the Specials, the Police, UB40, Dennis Bovell, lovers rock performers Carroll Thompson and Janet Kay, bands like Aswad and Steel Pulse and reggae admirers such as Boy George and Paul Weller.

The programme celebrates the impact of reggae, the changes it brought about and its lasting musical legacy.

REVIEW FROM THE TELEGRAPH

"As you’d expect, the film was peppered with atmospheric archive footage – usually of dauntingly cool young men dancing in sunglasses – and illuminating facts.

Do you know, for example, why ska, reggae’s musical precursor, is called ska? Neither did I. According to Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, it’s an onomatopoeic word for the “scratchy sound of the guitar on the off-beat”.

What was most impressive, however, was the way in which Reggae Britannia’s producer and director Jeremy Marre allowed his documentary to do two things at once. On the surface, it was a musical history lesson, joining the dots and playing the killer tunes. But running beneath that, as insistent as a Lee Scratch Perry bassline, was a story with an even more powerful theme: race. As the narrator explained, the history of British reggae holds a mirror to British society, as attitudes to the music mutated over time from rejection to acceptance and, finally, assimilation.

It was therefore fitting that the film concluded with a segment on UB40, the self-styled “jazz/dub/reggae band” all of whose members, black and white, grew up in a place that is unmistakeably British: Birmingham."

From the Sound System to Top of The Pops, reggae has had a sublime influence on everyday life in the UK. 

+ Q&A with Jeremy Marre!

We are very proud to annouce that Jeremy Marre, the director of this excellent documentary will be at the cinema tonight, for a Q&A after the film! Thi is a very rare occasion - not to be missed!

3 NIGHTS OF EVENTS (21, 22 and 23 September 2011)

Reggae Britannia is being screened as part of a three night event screening Jeremy Marre films.

The week of activities - run in partnership between Funky Butt Club/Sounds of Seduction, Side Cinema, Star and Shadow Cinema and Northern Film & Media – include a range of screenings at Side Cinema and a closing evening at Star and Shadow, featuring a screening of Reggae Britannia and a Funky Butt Club night, with blue beat, ska, rock-steady, boss reggae and soul until the early hours.

About JEREMY MARRE

Marre has made a wide variety of one-hour and ninety minute television programmes including the definitive films on reggae in both Jamaica and Britain. Many have won major international awards, including two Emmys, a Golden Eagle, a Golden Harp, major prizes at the Montreux Festival and a Grammy nomination.

He series-produced the major BBC/WGBH four-hour series Latin Music USA, series-produced and directed Soul Britannia – a prestigious three hour music series for BBC – plus documentaries on James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and Bob Marley. For more about his work click here: http://www.harcourtfilms.com

9PM UNTIL 1AM: DANCING WITH FUNKY BUTT CLUB!

As usual, DJs Lord Leigh Park and Lady Koo will present a worldwide selection of Jamaican-influenced musical cuts with an emphasis on good time ska, reggae, dancehall, bluebeat, soul and rhythm and blues. There'll be roots and basement thrown in for good measure, and all of it good for dancing and feelin’ good.

Tickets £5 for the whole night!

http://www.soundsofseduction.org/