Reels & Riddims
Welcome to Reels & Riddims!
Mikelah and Kerry-Ann, two friends and culture enthusiasts, give their eclectic mix of commentary and reviews in world of TV, Film, and Concerts. From dissecting storylines in TV and film that feature Caribbean characters, to the irresistible 'riddims' of the concerts, Reels and Riddims got you covered.
Reels & Riddims
Dissecting the "Bob Marley One Love Movie": A Candid Caribbean Discussion (Part 2)
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This episode transcends mere film review, becoming a platform for a broader conversation about the delicate craft of balancing reverence and critical exploration of our heritage. We highlight the significant, yet often overlooked, contributions of Caribbean stories in mainstream media and deliberate on how the Bob Marley film's portrayal has been received across different cultures. Together, we shout from the rooftops our hunger for a film industry that not only entertains but also genuinely represents the Caribbean.
Resources mentioned:
Documentary: Marley , Remastered: Who Shot the Sheriff
Connect with us:
- @reelsandriddims on Instagram
- Website | YouTube
A Breadfruit Media Production
Bob Marley Movie Town Hall Discussion
Speaker 1Hello everybody , welcome back to part two of this town hall discussion of the Bob Marley One Love Movie . We're back . I'm your host , keryann , mikaela , my co-host , and with us is Chris , indira , mikey Jendai and Alexandria . I guess we're not going to run the introduction long because we want to get back into discussion . In part one we covered who made the film , we covered the review of the film , we covered the characters . Now we are going to go into like a color commentary with opinion about it , because we did pre-man proper in our part one . So in part two we're going to fly the gate with the opinion . And why , mikaela , the laugh off of me ? Because you know I am the , but I'm the next video . Why ?
Speaker 2are you selecting her ? We're in change . We're in change .
Speaker 1I was a selector in another lifetime , you know , remember when I said I was going to come to this thing and say yo , I'm dressed for this clash . Alright , I'm already , so I'm going to come to this .
Speaker 1Alright , really , but no , so we're coming in and I want Chris to kick us off because we just feel like , say , as Jamaicans and Caribbean people , we know the story . So this little peon peon thing , when they give you we're going to support it , but we feel like yo , it never really . They give you always a post to give and it is not the mix up both in baby mother . We're asking and I think people misunderstood that .
Speaker 1What people are asking for is like you know , when we listen to a bop song , I'm , you know , I love music , like , I feel it in my soul , like certain songs , especially when I know which part of the Bible it a quote you understand , forever loving job is one of my favorite coming , no , which part in the Bible does I mean ? No , what it mean . I feel so emotional . But yes , I yo all the money , just a single tune in my is like yo when I said job , jehovah , our God , or whatever you want to say , call your field is . But then explain to me what make you go to the soul and the gear woman , your wife born with extra cheese . Like , explain that to me , you understand . So that is what people are trying reconcile . They might understand all come your revolutionary . The five people in Africa are your wife , over here to fight their prominence as a minimum wife and to leave and cleave and be , you know , like one and only so . Um , chris , I'm gonna kick it to you , but don't give me spiel .
Speaker 3Joe roster for a job , the far I ever live in , ever fit full , ever sure , more and more that Bob said , more and more yeah , anyway , no , so real talk Like like , I mean , listen , we know what biopics are . I mean , I mean we , we , we've seen Ray , we've seen , uh , you know , straight out of Compton we've seen . I mean we could run down the list there's . There's so many that have been made right . They definitely missed the market more ways than one . The story felt to me exactly like what everybody was saying earlier . It was like a tribute to my dad and my mom . It was not something that people who are lovers of Bob Marley I want to understand . His story was not something that made you get real insight into his life , cause everything that they told I think people already , all all the stuff people already knew they knew about the you know seeing from watching documentaries , the whole piece concert and what that , what happened , and so it's like they did not take the time to really dive deep into what well , I'm Kerry said speak , speak , speak .
Speaker 1I have to tell you . So in the movie theater , the scene when the gunman and Maroney I see the gunman behind Rita and somebody go . Oh so , mr Wulane , I don't know if Rita gets shot in the night .
Speaker 3Yeah Well , unfortunately , that's something that a lot of people maybe a lot of people did not know , because I was just saying it .
Speaker 1You know like we take we we most Jamaicans . That's knowledge for us , right ?
Speaker 3So so when .
Speaker 1I say well , I never noticed like this was you know . So I , in one sense , I can see , why they made it , but it was just like for me , it's like you never know this , no , but but you know we were talking about even even this from the storyline .
Speaker 3Okay , so they chose , they chose a particular period . Right , I get it , you want to choose a particular period because you don't want to go all over the place , but you could have led up to that period . You could have spent a little bit more time with Kwan developing that whole young Marley's , because the whalers , the whaling whalers , when they came out with with Peter Tasha and Bunny Whalen , simadon , simadon , I mean that didn't mash up the place . Is that set the foundation , right ? So no , you could have taken that and led up to that particular part and given us a rich story , something that would have made people connect and identify and feel Bob . And then the motor walk out the film singing Simadon and all the other songs where they make back then , I mean it just they probably the best scene .
Speaker 1Yeah , they're the biggest .
Speaker 3Yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , but also , was it you Listen ? Was I the only one who was very perplexed ? Or then portray Lee Scratch Perry on a wine name . I'm coxswain . I was like why .
Speaker 3Exactly , exactly . Why did they do that ? Yeah , they wanted something sensational . It was total unautobus . Okay , because , while I did hear coxswain was no joke , you know , and I met him one time , many years ago , but it wasn't necessary .
Speaker 5What did they add to the story ?
Speaker 3You know what ? Yeah , what did it exactly ? What did it add to the stories ?
Speaker 2You know , it was like a checkbox to say we , we , we captured that element Like I knew it was Lee scratch Perry as soon as I saw it . But essentially , like the story with Lee is so interesting because essentially he Juan Harry , why y'all bust off that , it seems .
Speaker 1before me finish with Tom Listen because if you are going to include Lee Scratch Perry in a Bob Marley's timeline and story , that wasn't when you were supposed to do it . You were supposed to do it further down . Come on , man , that is not even when you want to introduce me . Well , anyway , I digress . Juan , alexandra , me need you to jump in as the historian among us , you know ? So go on , but I didn't think it was additive to the story , as everybody said . Yes , you may want to convey that he was a hard man , but they did
Critical Review of Bob Marley Film
Speaker 1it . And then what after that ? Which is like it felt flat , you're sure . So them going there , and then , you know , then start off a little doll . They mash it up with Sima , though . And then what happens after that , which is why the whole flashback thing was just like so odd to me .
Speaker 4I was trying to , you know , put my historian self aside and say , but Marley passed more than 40 years ago , so I'll let it be them . Where my age , young that I'm , you , a them grow up , I listen to this song , but they maybe don't watch documentaries and other things . When we do , come my thing different , fine , how impactful would this , you know , iteration of this story be for them ? And I was like , alright , they might get say it was very pro black and you know there's the the . You know have to go to Africa . We have to go to Africa iteration of this story .
Speaker 4But I definitely do think he could have done more in terms of Showcasing his life . You know they clearly , as you , as was said before , they've lined it up in terms of , you know , this kind of like , what is it ? 1975 to 1978 ? Benchmarks , right , and everything else are sort of flashbacks . And if that was the sort of like Categorical issue in terms of how it's framed , right , they are framing everything in terms of these very you know , sparse three or you know , not sparse , but a lot of things happen in the three years , but they're centering it in that time frame . And if that was part of the issue in a sense , in terms of trying to understand who Bob was outside of . You know three years of his very short life .
Speaker 6As far as that's at least fresh now . I was super excited once I found out who was playing him . I said , oh yeah , because I fell in love with him from Easy , or as the poop-a-poop-a , whatever you want to call himself . I said , oh , perfect person to pay the stretch perfect . And then they give us this little what he said . Two words they give us this little Of him .
Speaker 5In advance .
Speaker 4I never get no word , I'm just .
Speaker 6Literally no storyline in this whole thing . It was just everywhere . And then one , the guy who played young Bob . Even him I said , okay , even casting wise looks wise . He's a Jamaican . Yeah , let us see more of him for this character , a little bit more . Nothing the movie is is not as good as that last documentary If we call Bob that last documentary that marley , no .
Speaker 1So you have . The last documentary was I shot the sheriff , which is streaming on Netflix , and the the one before that was marley , which is the first one where you had members of the marley family , and that one is streaming on amazon prime .
Speaker 6You know , once you see that , and then you see , this is like how , what is like .
Speaker 1I have a question . So , all right , um area of my daughter kind of said it , where , um , you know , americans , black Americans specifically , they love it , jamaicans , we all over the place with it . But I've seen people in Jamaica and I've heard stories where they're like , oh my god , it's amazing , us the winning performances . So , americans aside , why did Jamaicans in Jamaica saying , oh my god , this is amazing , this is an a blah , blah , blah ? And we here said , hmm , maybe we're not here with dirty laundry .
Speaker 5We're gonna talk about it at the kitchen table . We're gonna work on this together , but for the most part , we have to make sure that the word out there is this is a great movie , go watch it . And I think whoever was doing the interviewing at the end of the day Was looking for people who had a positive reaction to this film and and and guess what ? Everybody else does it . Nobody else just goes out and , you know , dashes their culture or whatever Italian Americans , irish Americans , whatever it may be .
Speaker 1But we're not in basher culture , remember , yeah , let me hear what you said . You know , my philosophy is we can't love a thing , but we have to critique a thing .
Speaker 5Oh , yes , we're gonna critique it and that's why things like these exist , and . But when we're talking about the big commercials , go watch Bob . But we're gonna come to our safe spaces , which are Our platforms like this , where we can have a really critical conversation . But do we need to have that critical conversation in public ?
Speaker 1I have a question for indira Um , because indira is the soul non-jamaican among us , but she is Caribbean . So , indira , how is your perception of the film like overall ? Your perception of the film versus what you are hearing us , because you always have a different Perspective , so I'd love to hear what you have to say .
Speaker 7I actually did enjoy the film , um , I think because , like I , we don't get too many Caribbean stories , so I'm always excited just to see something , you know , with the Caribbean story up on screen . Like , um , in LA we have the pan-african film festival and there's hundreds of films , but I always go through to look to see , like , which ones are the Caribbean stories , and they're mostly shorts and that's what I saw in this couple weeks ago , um , but to see a full feature , feature length film that is a Caribbean story . I was pretty excited to see that . So , I mean , I enjoyed it .
Reggae Movie Critique and Missed Opportunities
Speaker 1I want to come back to you , but this movie outside of the harder they come . This is the first real reggae movie . Shaka's is not reggae , it's dad's off .
Speaker 4You're not gonna count a cool running no .
Speaker 1No blasphemy .
Speaker 2To your point . This is the first reggae movie .
Speaker 1Yeah , no , it's not the first reggae , it's it's . It's the biggest one , because you would count harder . They come as the first yes the first yes , and that was .
Speaker 2That was phenomenal . Yeah , I watch it now and it's still good .
Speaker 1Yes . So , indira , from your perspective , is this conversation helpful ? Because if , if we're happy to see Caribbean film and we're here , like we , we went to see it , we will go see , we will spend money to see it , we'll tell you to go see it , but we're going to criticize it . In the world of TV and film , is there a place for critics if they're not enough Caribbean films in the space ?
Speaker 7Um , I feel like , yeah , these conversations are helpful . I mean , you , you have to critique films in order for them to get better . Um , you know , we're the best ones to critique it because , like , if you read the headlines From deadline or variety , they're very biased on how they critique Black content . So I feel like this this is very helpful to see and I can't wait for people to Check out these episodes .
Speaker 1Thank you , mikey , go on .
Speaker 5Am I the only one that feel that they Miss the mark ? When it came to that last concert where bob held up Michael , michael manly and edwards , he had this hand . Like when I saw kingsley walking to there , I was like , oh , it's about to get rid , we are about to go to a concert . Like , like , like jayme fox , when he , when he became ray charles and he sung it , and when and when chat with bozeman became james brown , I was like , okay , kingsley , this is your moment . The rest of it was dubbed , but kingsley's about to , and then they went into the archives and I was like Listen , I said the same thing .
Speaker 1So the woman who played um , what's her name ? Dobson , I actually know her . Um , sandy , she's the video girl in shaggy's bombastic video and if you watch , I shot the sheriff . She actually said that when bob did that , she felt like the sky open lightning and thunder . Yes , um , that in , I shot the sheriff right . So in that it was , it was a pivotal moment when he did that and they chose not to do that because that is the most recognizable Aspect of that concert itself .
Speaker 1The other one that I'm surprised they didn't show within that time period Was the zimbabwe and him going to african doing the perform . Like I'm like , wait , why we choose this time period if we are cut out the iconic moments of the time period . So it kind of Goes back to us feeling like , um , you just tell your parents story , which nothing is wrong with that , but the audience is not connected to your parents the way that you are . And the other thing now we are going to this um , so we notice the marley family . Up until this point , they move as a unit , solid , in sync , and I felt like they were out of sync with this , with the rollout and the promotion . I felt like they were out of sync . Um , it's an observation . So I learned this week bright girl Learner school . You have opinion and observation . Is this a general observation ? Everybody of ?
Speaker 3100% 100% .
Speaker 5I love them in mind . I follow him and I'm like On his ig page . Like you can't even see it in his stories .
Speaker 1Yeah , so that was something . We observe everybody to speculate , so something was out of sync . We know that when the marlies have a project , well , the premiere at jr Meekan .
Speaker 2see I said in our phone booth .
Speaker 1I really get it to the coach in our studio across leg and or sell word and I'm like yo , this is london and london , she in barb take up with Cindy in a london big , big like london city was barb at Cindy , so I don't know Anybody else can jump in I'm being messy , but Again , not to even go back to , like the , the womanizing part , but the , the moments that they Left out to make him human .
Speaker 2We hear a lot about hope road . How did Hope Road come to be Right ? Because essentially it was a safe haven for many . They avoided the political conflict , the strife , the struggles that Rastas had to go through . The only scene that you saw was in the beginning when he was stopped by the police officer and the police officer didn't recognize him and then call him a Dutty Rasta . But that was the only inclination , like we shied so far , from the political connection of Rastafarianism .
Speaker 2Bob Marley , the significance out of fear , of what exactly ? I don't know , because it was such a significant part of his story . And then , not only that , the moments of Hope Road where there were so many people coming in and out of that house . Why was that ? Why was that ? The center of so much people asking for help , being able to come to the gate . There are stories out there right Of someone , all the women that that place helped and there was only one person really relegated and it was kind of like a dismissed aspect of his intent on helping people .
Speaker 2Right , and the Africa part . I think that that he always really wanted to reach black people , the black diaspora , holistically . Right , and he didn't get to do that in his life until he was able to go to Africa and they had to kind of allude to it . Right , they didn't even really talk about the significance of what that meant for him . Right , rita lives in Ghana . She has residency there . You know what I mean . Like the connection between Ethiopia and Rastafarians . It was an opportunity for people who claimed they really love reggae and love reggae music to truly get a history lesson on Rastafarianism and why it exists . Who Bob was really talking to when he did those songs ? Right , because he was talking about the civil rights movement . He was talking about pan-Africanism and he did not get to . We did not get to see that fullness . Right , most people already know one love , but one love is the tip of the iceberg .
Speaker 1Serious thing .
Speaker 2Meagastap deir ka , meagastap deir ka , meagastap deir ka , meagastap deir ka .
Speaker 1No , man , what you said is true about the music . I mean , everybody talks about the womanizing . By the way , I'm going to document you and I'm going to interview Bob . So , oman , come in and Bob say , if you're looking for trouble , you're come to the right place , but I but .
Speaker 2We are lyricists .
Speaker 1But outside of that he was very clear about when it comes to music . That's when you saw Bob very serious , like he was precise , if that made sense . He was very precise in what he wanted to do , when he wanted to do it and how he wanted to do it . And I'm disappointed that the only time they show Bob serious about his awenin lik dong nam man , right , filipe de teh nam money , but the violence was just like okay , you know what I mean . It's like they showed his reaction to his thing but they did not show the passion to hit the thing that he's reacting to the mantis . So that made no sense . So there was just a lot of missed opportunities and I think we understand the legacy of Bob and anyone watching in this age that they'll take forward and say like , all right , I don't get the big deal about this guy . So I think that was the missed opportunity . Again , story could have been better , but I like to see the potential .
Speaker 1What I enjoyed most was the potential of those in the film , Like I said Sheldon Shepherd , iman bad , laka yaas me , etelio , yaanasa me , etelio Bad , bad , bad , bad . I'm gonna feel like like Missy in Star Arise . And to your point , mikey . I think he just needs opportunities where he can become another role outside Jamaican . But I feel like if that's his pocket , sit in that pocket . Because Jason Statham appeared a pure shot-up movie in a minus one movie where he smiled and if at that time type cast , at that time type cast . So if Sheldon had got type cast as a Jamaican and a Rasta , make him own it Yaanasa me , etelio . Every time we see Jason in my transport somebody has somebody I date . So let me say if Sheldon had got those whole role , let us let him hold it right .
Speaker 1Like I said , the potential of Kwan and even Naomi get a few speaking lines . But we hope that from this movie we can only hope , cause we may not get it . We can hope from this movie that you know , our films are bankable , they're marketable . But Minosa , the mother said , well , bob Marley's an outlier . So we wanna talk about , like what we see as the down , the future in terms of Caribbean film , and I want to start with Indira , we're gonna go to Chris , alexandria and then anybody else who I add , based on what those people say .
Speaker 7What I hope is that , I mean , this movie has been doing , I guess , pretty good at the box office this first weekend and I'm hoping that the studios will see that , like when our stories deserve to be told , and that they should take a chance because they'll pay off , and I hope that this , you know like , opens the floodgates to more to more stories . I feel like there's plenty of I mean Caribbean stories out there . It doesn't always have to be a , like a film based on a real person . I want more of the studios and more filmmakers to be able to dip into all aspects of Caribbean content .
Speaker 3Yeah , I definitely think there's an opportunity . I mean , I think it was 2011 that Storm Salter did better must come right and I got a chance to talk to him way back then and it was an amazing film . It was very well done , it was very well shot . I know people hopefully most of you have seen that film and this was not a big production like no Paramount , no Viacom , no Warner Brothers none of these big studios or whatever did this . So we have the ability to do these films and tell our own stories and I'm hoping that you know out of this , more stories like that will be told . But the key to those stories being told and being seen is us supporting them right and unfortunately , sometimes we don't come out and support enough .
Speaker 3I'm a big believer in supporting the arts and pushing for that . I did a screening of Better Must Come here back then and I mean we had a great turnout . But the fact is that those are the things that we need to do more . We need to make sure that when our films are being told by us , by people that look like us , not the Paramounts of the world we don't have money endless money for do whatever they're doing , but when it's being done by us and independent , no , no . In other words , we're still gonna support it . That's not what I'm saying , you know , kerry . It's just that we need to put more behind it . When it's independent , I'll hold on .
Speaker 1I agree with you . You said Paramount have money , but Marie , that recent news Paramount have issues .
Speaker 3They got issues , they have issues , but now the budget for this film was , I believe , 70 million . Right To date World Ride it's grossed about 86 million 688,696 dollars , according to box office Mosul . Right , that's where it's at to date . So you know , they might have some more to go and I feel like it'll definitely go past a hundred million dollar mark worldwide .
Discussion on Caribbean Film Distribution
Speaker 3Go ahead , what is it ?
Speaker 1You know the thing about timing and Better Must Come . I can't find Better Must Come on any streaming platform , but I also think of the timing right when streaming is a little different and I wonder if it'll be successful . We don't know the answer . Because we wanna go where the eyes are and recent news that came out , amazon Prime and a few of these have pulled their investments into the African movie industry . So it is changing . But this is why Reels and Rhythms . We did it because we wanna participate in the ecosystem of our films . Right , we talk about them , support them , create reviews around them . Distribution that is the bigger problem distribution for people to see it , because people go out and see the shorts , as Indira talked about , but once they're going in the film festival route , we can't see them . We don't see them because by entering into film festivals , they cannot be made available to public . One of the other reasons why we've done Reels and Rhythms was because for certain shows that came out last year on certain streaming , they never market to . We and most of the people in our community never know . So the show is about . I recently did a what do you call it ? A poll on the one that we just watched champion . A lot of people didn't know about it . So we have to do a better job and which is why Reels , we're doing it , so people know about it and they will go and watch it .
Speaker 1But again , the Marley film , I hope that it creates interest . If anything else , if there's no new project , interest in existing projects . It's important Because if people are re-streaming and we re-watch a different world and living single , we are supposed to watch our thing multiple times and we need to figure out how we're gonna get down to our Queen Parwash streaming platform , how we're going to get you know lunatic panashe , you know what I'm saying Like the things that we know are in , or filmography , or the canon of Caribbean films . How can we see harder they come right On a streaming platform ? So these are the things that I'm saying that , if anything , it just creates interest into the canon of what we have available in the realm of Caribbean film , not just Jamaican , but Caribbean film .
Speaker 5And in respect to where does Jamaican or Caribbean films go from here ? The question is and I know one of the biggest hurdles I have found like with my documentary has been my documentary is an hour and 15 minutes and when I tell people that in the film festival circuit they're just like , oh God , can you cut it down to 10 minutes ? Can you cut it down to 15 minutes ? Their fear is people , I guess , of Caribbean descent , don't want to sit down and why and I'm wondering where that even comes from , because I don't know where it comes from , but it has been a resistance that I have meant a lot and I was gonna ask Indira , because I know she said that when she went to the film festival the Caribbean films are usually in the short section and I don't know if that's by design or is that by lack of funding and people not actually being able to find a way to get people to look at that . And then the question for the film festival circuit is are you marketing to Jamaicans and Caribbean to actually come out , because I don't know too many from where I'm from that really go out to film festivals ? So it might be a very difficult market to push it in , so that's my biggest concern .
Speaker 7The last couple of years I've gone , it's just been like , it's just been short . So like I'll go through the website and like search to see like which Caribbean stories ? No , like , we wrote in with short and then not all the shorts within that series are like Caribbean stories . It's just like I don't know how they decide what , like how they're going to bundle them together . And then the last time I saw a feature at the film festival , that was this show , this movie called Brown Girl Begins , and I think that was probably the longest one that I saw . And then after that everything has just been like shorts , only Even Harain , who Kieran had interviewed a couple of weeks ago . His movie was , you know , bundled in with some other shorts .
Speaker 1So , and as we begin to wrap up , we should set some expectation , wanna manage expectations . The Marley film and the success of it , we hope , leads to other things in the industry . But it's not a guarantee , because Marley in and of itself is an icon larger than the island , it's larger than life , and so a project for him being green lit makes sense . It doesn't necessarily trickle down . That's why we continue to support the smaller project . So I wanna get last words from everyone , and we'll start with our quiet historian , miss Hallegsandia . Any last words on our discussion about the Bob Marley One Love film or Caribbean films in general ?
Speaker 4I think one thing that I will say , which has been definitely mentioned , is the need to really market towards us .
Speaker 4Right ? Carrie Ann had me on Carrie Ann Friends episode talking about Black Cake , and the amount of people I personally talked to didn't even know that Black Cake was a novel written by a Jamaican author that was then turned into a Hulu series is incredible , right , and you know , I saw several things marketing wise for this film a big Ferris wheel , rona Lampa , please , rona Lampa , let me ask it . Okay , and it just I kept on and I was like , yeah , so you know , it's one thing to say marketing , but the marketing also needs to be very pointed , in a sense , where I feel like we always have to say like you know , what do we need for the pamphlet and board or however this goes , but clearly , you know , it goes beyond that cause . We would think in our minds , marley family depended things , so it should have shut in a particular way . But that impetus to really say you know we are in charge of our stories and we're also getting that message out across to everybody is one that needs to be really driven home .
Supporting Caribbean Film Industry Progress
Speaker 6I wish that a lot of the , even some of the films that I see , the films that people put together on these YouTube channels that I watch , the amazing things that these people do with limited resources I just wish that more of that could be showcased and not just go to independent films as the whole . So I mean , that's really all I have to say . I mean I just wish for that and I wish that for the films that do go to big production I kind of talked about that in the group chat that they actually people would be compensated properly . This conversation can go on and on , but yeah , you know , compensation and all sorts of other things playing to parts of why we don't get the proper showcasing . But I'm just glad to see that more of it's happening , a lot more is happening than in the past , so I'm glad for that . We're moving on , we're making progress , so I'm glad for that . Yeah .
Speaker 1Mikey .
Speaker 5Um , simplest thing I would say is I'm happy for it , I'm glad it's here . We have to start from somewhere and I hope when they make us , I'm gonna speak it into existence . When they do another major production that is Caribbean based , whether whichever Caribbean island it is from , I hope they take a look on the marketing side . When I see Kingsley on , he's on the breakfast club , he's on Stephen Colbert , he's on all these different media outlets throughout America and Europe . I kind of wish that they did the same thing for the Dutty Berry Show , like your show , like how do we make sure that they're also marketing to our people ? Because I'm sure a lot of people who never watched the Colbert Report but know who Kingsley is , watched his show and they were introduced to other audiences .
Speaker 5So there are plenty of economic upsides from having a film like this and hopefully on the next production we can tap in on those other the round size , not just thinking about the star or thinking about the actual film , but thinking about the overall economic impact that a film like that has and make sure that we are in every part of it , because while the Marleys were a part of the production of the film , where they are part of the marketing and that cultural aspect , like we don't need a big Ferris wheel that's not connected to us . Talk to 50 Jamaican people right now , ask them now go find us . You just have to be real and that's it .
Speaker 1Before I got to Indira . You made a good point and again it is why we started Reels and Rhythms , because you realize that people don't market to us directly , and it's not just non-Caribbean brands , even Caribbean brands . It's just the other day that the Minister of Tourism is pointedly marketing to the diaspora , the Jamaican diaspora . Before they didn't market to us because I'm taking it for granted , so we'll go buy the products at Regalcom dear , and with black travelers they realize , no , we're not , for come back home , we are going wherever , pocket , wherever , all over . And so now they're marketing to us but also , like you said , supporting our platforms , your Comanah , Cari , and our friends as Style and Vibes , Reels and Rhythms . And you made the example of Dirty Berry and I saved it for last because Tess and Chin won the voice because of Dirty Berry , If he did not do the great doneness .
Speaker 5Chin was my word , my phrase , my sentence .
Speaker 1Tess , my alphabet , my word , my sentence , my alphabet Right . If he did not do that show , tess and Chin would not have won the voice , because he really rallied everybody , not just those in Jamaica but those outside of Jamaica , to vote for Tess and Chin on the voice , because otherwise most people don't watch the voice . After the voice no one would know what else . And since then there are other Caribbean people that have been on the voice , but they push what Tess and Chin gets because of Dirty Berry . That's a case study that people should use the power of what we can do when we mobilize and galvanize our community to support our people when they're in an audience that don't know them . Most of us didn't know Tess and Chin because they're the one big song she had , but let me tell you , dirty Berry deserved the credit for doing what he did . I like that point and thank you for raising that point , indira . Any last words .
Speaker 7To go back to something that I noticed in the film . I said this the second time when I saw it to myself . I was like when Rita checked herself out of the hospital and then she came up to meet Bob and at that moment it was just like , oh , he just gives her a hug and he says whatever . But I'm like your wife just got out the hospital , no kiss , just , you weren't that affectionate to me . I was like that's very odd and I felt like they really weren't that affectionate even throughout the movie . It was just like hugging a friend , a cousin or whatever . I'm like that was affectionate .
Speaker 2I guess that might be the jibbing up bringing that was as affectionate as Bob was going to get .
Speaker 7Oh , really OK .
Speaker 2It was a really tight rebel and that's exactly what they're not showing . He was like they portrayed him as this soft-spoken young person , which he probably was , but he came into his own and he was like yeah , yeah , all right . Sorry , I'm going to cut you off , indira . No , no , it's OK .
Speaker 7That was really it that I had noticed .
Speaker 1I mean it really goes back to Ray and get on up where the family isn't as close to the project , because you can't tell the story objectively . If you are in the family and very close to the story itself , you can oversee it and I guess , again , you want some control over it . But because of that , it wasn't told in an objective way and because of that , some key things that would have showed him as a complex man , a complicated man . Instead of creating a single story for Bob because that's what they succeeded in doing creating the single story of Bob and Bob Robert Nesta-Mali is not a single story . He's a complex man and people gravitated him because people are complex and they like that . This man who was able to do all of these other things , is also imperfect and complex , and that's what people are looking for . So , chris , any last words .
Speaker 3Yeah , I guess I'm going to go and see the film and support the thing and the thing , the thing , the thing no . But seriously , I really do want people to still continue to support the film because it is our story and it's for the culture . I do hope that people who are close to this are listening to the feedback that is being shared and do things differently , because it's very important that we , while we tell our stories , that we tell it in the right way . This is why it's important for us to control our own narrative by owning media , owning distribution , owning different platforms that will allow us to have that level of control . And we also have to realize that , even though there may be limitations in ownership , we have a significant amount of power in social media and other aspects that we can use to Push .
Speaker 3Whatever it is , whatever story it is that we have to push forward , and with the collective community that we have to , grassroots marketing and so forth look , it's endless what we can achieve . I mean , just to take a page out of the hip-hop book . I mean , you know , you have our guy , the what's the name ? From New Orleans . Oh God , you know I'm talking about no limit soldier .
Speaker 3No , no limit soldier exactly .
Speaker 3Yeah that's the P and but baby cash , money , all of them . They did all this stuff on their own , okay , and made millions and millions of dollars . So the thing is is like we keep waiting for these people , other people , to save us . They'll never save us . We could save ourselves . So we just have to do what we have to do to push our stories forward , tell our stories , utilize us . We're all and all of us as individuals are powerful . Together we're even more powerful and take the thing forward . All right , that's all I gotta say . But support the film and one more part I forget for men show . One thing that was missing for me , that was big , that I didn't see . There was no antagonist in the film . Who was the antagonist ?
Speaker 1The antagonist . The antagonist was Lee scratch Perry . Coxon dot like Antagonist , everybody else yeah .
Speaker 2So that's why it felt collectively was the antagonist .
Speaker 1Yes .
Speaker 3I mean .
Speaker 4I get it , but they didn't even really go there .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's all we got . That was when he said I can't believe my own people did this to me .
Speaker 1Yeah , because they didn't want to go into the whole politics of see our gonna see I .
Speaker 2Without getting like choosing sides . They did not talk about it at all .
Speaker 1I Didn't have no , but even still and Alexandria knows this because you know , she knows the story of Claudie right and the idea of Claudie the PNP and the labor rights strongman are go hang glum figure . Talk to Bob . Yeah , I didn't want to bring peace . That is a huge thing .
Speaker 2It's huge . They just lost over it as it was .
Speaker 2Nobody knew who they were and it was a big decision for him to make . Like , how did he come to that decision ? Like what really was going through , claudie , that mine in order to like what was happening in Jamaica at that time , where it was so bad that they it was just like oh , I saw it on the news , like it was like five o'clock news and you know it's good , things are getting bad down there . But what ? What is that polarizing and we've seen it in . Better must come right . They were already filming in Jamaica the gully .
Speaker 1So while we hear , yes , um , alexandria want to explain we so we're so wrap up , like spend Friday night tonight . We so wrap up . But , um , who is Claudie and what ? The other one name ? I can't remember his name , but Bucky , bucky .
Speaker 4There you go .
Jamaican Politics and Cultural Critique
Speaker 4So at the you know sort of pinnacle of the 70s for Jamaica , right , very new Decade , mash into our Foundings as an independent nation and not necessarily different from other political systems . But we in Jamaica have two predominant um political parties , the JLP , jamaica Labor Party and the People's National Party , pnp , which also didn't get a great explanation . You know they're setting up having wars and you know civil unrest in Jamaica but the whole major context of that outside of figureheads of Siaga and manly got very overshadowed quickly . But you know to to that point .
Speaker 4You know there were lots of of In the , in the sense that you know during this period both parties are also Using a lot of the local gangs as sort of backings in terms of their elections and political leadership and how that goes . So you know people are buying into votes , people get some money for votes , etc . Etc . And you know this civil unrest that kind of got lost over a little bit . Which is why part of me felt like there were aspects of the movie that you know .
Speaker 4As people who know the story , we're like , yeah , man , that could have glossed over quick . But if you're not , if you're coming to the , to the movie with a new sort of framing . You might not understand all of the Contensions to these points , but all that to say when they do end up in England and you know , coming to bobbin saying you need to forward back because things are getting out of hand , it was a major Point that might have seemed small if you're not familiar , particularly because the extent of the civil unrest at the time was really dividing the nation along party lines like yeah , go , it's in certain colors , and all of these things have created very Stringent barriers between people in the communities in Kingston particularly .
Speaker 1Thank you for the background on claudie and bokeh and I think that was that was very important because , again , a lot of the crime was central Centered in kincston and for anyone watching there's typically somebody who runs a jlp controlled area and runs a pnp controlled area and claudie and bokeh represented those areas and they were the dance and whatever Associated with that . So they kind of glossed over that and the impact of that trip to england to kind of say , bob , come back to jamaica and again to really watch the context of this and to get into this , I highly recommend you watch eye shot the sheriff on netflix because they really get into claudie , bokeh and the whole Story around them and how the both of them were in up in a gunquarter general penitentiary and how they ended up being killed and murdered or whatever . Um , on a side note , and we go wrap up I wouldn't get that big ear jamaica playing from .
Speaker 2I think they painted it . They've got . They probably just did a .
Speaker 1It's like a rap or yes cj visual effects .
Speaker 5Yeah , I was wondering because I was like that the people was a little off the shade .
Speaker 4Other people was very cool off Major sassy .
Speaker 1And and then , and then , when he come off at the player , me one was a well on it . He's so never have no parent and supervision angels in the crowd , and then those filing but it wasn't ziggie that was in the crowd . It was another one of the kids , I don't remember it wasn't ziggie . He said .
Speaker 5He said that was the third time ziggie name was mentioned . He called Later .
Speaker 1No .
Speaker 5I'm gonna watch it again I know you say ziggie . He said ziggie three times and he said steven one time in the beginning .
Speaker 6Miss Elenius girl children and decided Pat wanted a head one time exactly .
Speaker 7My word my .
Speaker 3So let me ask you was it me , did anybody else notice that Neville Garrick's name was absent from like in honor of or in memory ?
Speaker 3Like like this is Nah yo , nah you , there's post , you could do that . You know that takes two seconds . They , they know what to do . I mean this is a . He was significant in Bob's life . The man passed away from cancer . Like , why was his name not mentioned ? I hit a man , said man , I appreciate no one there , but that's another . My Okay , even if it wasn't said , I'm sorry . No , I said even if it wasn't said in the film , like I think even when you're doing interviews and so forth , that's that's something to talk about , because you're talking about a story of someone who was larger than life , whose larger than life appearance or whatever Was made so by these other people . Right , you know , the contribution that Neville Garrick gave to Bob helped to make him larger than life . He was basically the painter , the illustrator , the man who gave us those album covers and those . You know . They basically gave us the , the imagery to make a see Bob in that light . I mean , it wasn't simple .
Speaker 1You can't like gloss over that , you know but um , but also mommy Sidela , as in Bob mother , she , she didn't really get um a lot of feature which I that . To me that was odd because of the relationship they are known to have had with each other . I mean , clearly he named his child after a mother , right ? So you know there's mention of her , both other than the flashback scenes and the Nadine Marshall having the one line . There is not much of Sidela , bob's mom , actually Bob father get more , you know , references in a different than Bob mother himself . So even that Was just kind of weird .
Speaker 1But again , you're watching to lead to various debates and conversation . Everybody family group chat . Still our own hat After all of these Chattings and stuff . So we're gonna wrap it up . I love talking to you . I really would like on the comeback to another episode of something where we talk down the road up . Next , on reels and rhythms , we're gonna be talking about three little birds , which is streaming on Amazon via brick box . After that , what's coming up ? We have Shirley that is gonna be coming up on Netflix and we have Queenie that's on Hulu , that's gonna be out in June and in between we have Wally puttings that we're going to watch . So reels and rhythms . The content are come and we're there on it . So we are excited . We are excited . If you don't have an opinion , I tell me which one of the festive guests , I don't know your part Conversation we will have back . I am so honored to to be in your company and to have this conversation , so um , I have to share last thoughts .
Speaker 2Oh , my last thoughts .
Speaker 1Yes , no , watch it . I watched it . I will not lie , I watched it out of duty . As a Jamaican , I watched it . I will go and support it and I want everybody to go and support it . And Everybody thought it was a good production . It was a . I mean , I expect it to be a good production . That's the beer minimum , right , but I would have liked the writing to be better and the story to be better . I think they did a good job with everything else . I just had an expectation Of what I wanted our icon Bob to be , and it didn't meet my standards , but it didn't mean it was subpar either . I am a Jamaican . I'm gonna critique it much differently than someone who's not of the culture .
Speaker 2Yes , I agree , it was good , go see it . What I am hoping is storm solter does a mini series , takes young bob and recreates the entire story in a seasonal Format for us to really get a bigger picture of everything . So now put it all tonight , universe storm because Me think , say , yeah , I didn't mind fig deets , and you can even reprise some of the , the actors that you , you , you have already worked with and and really do that . I , I love seeing us doing all types of projects . I would love to see more , even going back into , like our archives , of turning more books into film . Someone mentioned brief history of seven killings . That's been on the docket . I thought it was gonna be amazon prime that did that movie .
Speaker 1Ten years ago yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , it's been a while since that has been revisited . Additionally , um , I would love for us to go back in our bag of , like , all of us sitcom , right , what does that look like ? Re-imagine everything I reboot . So let's reboot . For what does under me ? No , yeah , everything I reboot . What does under my nose look like ? What does both you know ? Um , what are the other ones ? Mama , mom , mama , mine even even dance all queen , like , I feel like shenshia could make an appearance in a dance . All queen she are are like a jada kingdom kid , like , like , like , let's go back
Expanding Caribbean Film and Media
Speaker 2into our bag .
Speaker 2We're in a new era now where we have access and we don't have to wait for these things to chris and everyone's point that we have the content there . We just need people to execute and support it . From a bigger standpoint . I really , you know , so that that is my hope , um , and not just jamaican films . I want , I want to see . You know , I just listened to the podcast about , um , what is the ? The prime minister in Grenada ? Oh , my god , that was , oh oh , the empty grave of morris bishop of morris bishop .
Speaker 2That needs to be phenomenal , you know I mean . It's so Good . You know what I mean . Like those are some of the stories that you know we should be telling as well , in addition to the gunman tunes , our stories where we have Rinse it , rinse it , like the people them say rinse it , rinse it . We have enough content , so just keep it coming . I like that . We're seeing more of it , so I'm excited to continue reels and rhythms . But I want to get me excited on a Friday .
Speaker 1All right , so thank you for joining us . We're going to end the recording , but we're not going to sign off . We're going to elaborate , so until next time , lick them or walk good later .
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