New Documentary - MAN FREE

It's nice to be able to bring good news to you all, this is a brand new documentary about Jamaican people titled approprietly 'Man Free' a film by Kinsey Beck, produced by David Garonzik, who is also producer of Perry Henzell's 'No Place Like Home' film and edited by Alexis Chavez, who was Perry Henzell's sole editor on 'No Place Like Home', so i think we can expect a very nice documentary...
The film tells the story of good old Jamaican people plain and simple, looks promising, more info on this one comming soon......

Official Website www.manfreejamaica.com



"Take a glimpse into the beautiful struggle of modern Jamaicans. Surrounded by a lush and beautiful landscape, these people fight poverty, drugs and politics to carve a life for themselves however they can manage. No matter how hard the struggle, they stand by their native land...the land they love...Jamaica.

Man Free by Kinsey Beck takes a look into the lives of everyday people in the beautiful country of Jamaica. Told through the people themselves, the film takes a glimpse into the lives of people young and old as they fight politics, crime, drugs and more.

From the colorful and spirited taxi driver called Master Blaster to the young woman in her twenties running her own bakery, Man Free sheds a light on real life in Jamaica. It's not all reggae and good times. It's a land full of conflict and struggle and a yearning for a better life. But through all the hardships, you come to realize Jamaicans are truly people of grace."

Travel Channel Documentary on Jamaica......

I wanted to mention this travel documentary that was broadcast on the Travel Channel last month titled 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations' each episode visits a different country where Anthony gets to explore and sample the local cultures, this time was Jamaica.

The show featured Mutabaruka and he gave Anthony a tour of the local market which is a very important place for alot of Jamaican's. Next was Hellshire beach where he visted Aunt Merle's Fish Shack and got to snack on the local seafood cusine. Next was a trip to the Craighton Estate in the Blue Mountains where he got to sample the famous Blue Mountain coffee, it was explained that 90% of there product goes to Japan where it can sell for up to $20 per cup. They explained how Jamaican's wheren't coffee drinkers but they certainly know how to grow it, the blue mountains is one of the only regioons where the unique strain of coffee will grow to it's full potential, even though it can be grown in other parts of the world, it just never grows aswell, this is due to the unique micro climate of the Blue Mountains. www.craightonestate.com

At one point they visited an underground cave system, but Anthony wasn't too happy when he ended up falling over several times into bat poo! also there where thousands of cockroaches beneath his feet, the temperature was unbearable, the look on his face tells it all! Anyone wanting to visit caves while in Jamaica, you can checkout www.jamaicancaves.org

The full episode should be available on the Travel Channel Website soon.

Louder Than Words (New Documentary in Production)

I posted this one up on the dvd list by mistake a few weeks ago so here it is again....

New documentary from the author of 'Wake The Town, Tell The People', the film 'Lounder Than Words' will be the premier documentary film about Jamaican dancehall music and culture. This 80-minute documentary transports the viewer into the world of dancehall where Jamaica's "ghetto youth" are creating one of today's most infectious and rapidly growing music forms.

Problems with new Bob Marley film from the Weinstein Co........

Below is an article taken from www.hollywoodreporter.com
By Gregg Goldstein

March 21, 2008

NEW YORK -- The family of Bob Marley has refused to license any of his music for a biopic that the Weinstein Co. is prepping -- despite the fact that his widow, Rita Marley, is its executive producer.

The reason? There is a competing Martin Scorsese documentary being produced by the Marley family-owned Tuff Gong Pictures and Steven Bing's Shangri La banner, the first theatrical docu to license Marley songs.

The family members involved in the Scorsese docu claim they were unaware that the Weinstein project would be unveiled so soon and believe that its projected late-2009 release date would interfere with their docu's February 2010 release, which is timed to Marley's birthday.

"Martin Scorsese doesn't want to go out with a competing project, and Steven Bing has made deals with companies" that are now compromised, Blue Mountain Music president Chris Blackwell said. "The Weinstein project has put the documentary into jeopardy."


Blue Mountain Music is Marley's music publisher.

"All our efforts and support are currently directed toward the documentary," the untitled project's executive producer Ziggy Marley said. "We believe that this project is the best way to represent our father's life from his perspective, and any other film project pertaining to our father will be empty without his music to support it."

"When I sold the film rights to my book," Rita Marley told The Reporter, "the contract did not include any rights to use my husband's music."

The Marley family's lawyer Terri Dipalo denied the latest move is a negotiating tactic to compel the Weinsteins to buy Marley music rights or to up the price for those rights. She did suggest that "anything's possible" when asked if Marley's songs might end up in the Weinstein feature.

Music publisher Blackwell would like to see the biopic delayed until at least 2015 to avoid the two projects colliding. He said he talked with Harvey Weinstein on March 13 about the issue, but so far nothing has been resolved.

Blackwell told The Reporter that he expects a deal to be reached soon whereby the Weinstein Co. would take a stake in the Scorsese docu and agree to postpone its biopic.

Weinstein Co. spokesman Matthew Frankel responded, "We have great respect for the Marley family and Chris Blackwell and are in discussions to look at ways to mutually benefit both projects."

New shows with Roger Steffens......

I must mention these 3 new shows that recently aired on Cace TV in NY. They are 3x 30min documentary/interview shows, i've yet to watch them but i hear that they talk alot about his collection of reggae and whats happening with it regarding the move to JA, aswell as other things he's working on reggae wise.
More news on these soon i hope...

Plus another show with Roger as special guest, he featured on the One To One show which went out in JA last week, the show focuses mainly on Peter Tosh and had lots of old footage of Peter being interviewed, most of which looked like it was from LA Reggae but there where a few bits i didn't recognise. Roger also gave his views on modern day reggae and talked of his time spent with Peter Tosh.

Update.....

Just a quick update, i've not had as much time as normal to search for the latest releases but i am trying to keep on top of things.

Next month(April) there going to be a documentary/show screened in the US on G4 channel titled "420", in this episode they go to JA. I caught up with them filming at the Bob Marley Museum on Hope Rd. in Kingston a few weeks back which is how i know about this one. It will be well worth checking out, i think it's a pro Marijuana show so i guess they'll be checking out the JA strains of weed etc., one of there last episodes was in Amsterdam and you can watch the videos of this on there website http://www.g4tv.com/420/blog/index.html
The show is titled "420" and goes out on the 19th April(possibly 20th) on G4 which you can get in Jamaica, and most parts of the USA i believe.
You should be able to view the episode on the website from the 19th onwards.

Also for those of you in the UK and europe, checkout BEN TV, this is an African channel which has a nice music show on every friday evening titled "Musical Heatwave"
they have had some nice bits on reggae recently, with an exclusive Alton Ellis interview last week with Mikey Dread a few weeks before. They also sometimes air reggae concerts, i did catch Lucky Dube live not so long ago but i no longer get this channel unfortunately.

New DVDs onsale soon......

I must apologize as i promised to put out a few more dvds forsale before i went to JA but have been so busy with the festival etc.
Anyway i will put out 2 new dvds very soon, the first being 'Destination Jamaica' and 'Rastafarian Dreams' which are 2 films by Jungle George which come on one dvd, they both go together and play as one film, this is also another film shortlisted out of many films for this years Reggae Film Festival, the documentary follows Georges journey to Jamaica back in the 80's, armed with his camcorder he travels to JA and lives with a Rasta family, the film documents his time there.
It's an excellent film, not the type of film we usually get to see, it is very unique, i'm sure you will all enjoy this one.

The 2nd film is 'The Legacy' by Jep Jorba who is a Spanish film maker who's film the Legacy opened the Reggae Film Festival this year. Again a very nice film documenting the reggae legend Rico Rodriguez, this is the first film ever made about Rico and i'm so glad someone took the time to do this film, we can all learn from this one.

DVDs will be on sale soon as i get time to do the website work, hopefully in the next week, but you can contact me if you just can't wait!

New Bob Marley Film

Rita Marley, has just made a deal with film producers The Weinstein Co. to produce and distribute a biopic about Bob's life. Rita Marley will be executive producer and the film will be based upon Rita's 2004 book titled 'No Woman No Cry:My Life With Bob Marley' and writer Lizzie Borden has been hired for the film adaptation.

Lauryn Hill has been nominated to play Rita. Lauryn Hill is actually married to one of Bob's son' from another relationship,. "Lauryn would be ideal," said Marley. "She sees my life as her life." She also said that her grandson Stefan is "the spitting image of Bob" and would be perfect to play the role.

"Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter says that the musician will be played by two actors, one portraying him at age 15 and another as an adult. The option of Marley's original songs, covers sung by an actor or a Ray-style blend of the two are all possible for the soundtrack.

The untitled project is tentatively set to begin filming early next year with a projected release date of late 2009. If that is the case, it will arrive before Martin Scorsese's documentary on the performer, which is set for release on what would be Marley's 65th birthday: February 6, 2010."

http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=606552

'Made in Jamaica' now on dvd

The long awaiting 'Made in Jamaica' documentary by Jerome Lapperousaz has finally been released on dvd but for now it's only available in France, released on the 28th Feb., look out for the European release which should be on the way soon....