Sunday 26 September 2021, movie night: Rockers (Ted Bafaloukos, 1978). 100 minutes. Free admission. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts at 20:30
Horsemouth, a drummer living in a ghetto of Kingston, plans to make money selling records. After his prized motorcycle is stolen, his plans fall through and he’s forced to adapt.
Theodoros Bafaloukos’ 1978 film “Rockers” is arguably one of the most authentic and of-the-moment pieces of cinema made in Jamaica during the halcyon days of reggae. When the film screened at Cannes on the same night as Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” a crowd of thousands bum-rushed the theater to the point where the riot police had to be called in. A review in Le Monde read: “‘Rockers’ is not a film, it is a work of art. So good it is difficult to believe, yet it is real.”
A native of Andros, Greece, Ted first traveled to Jamaica in 1975 as a freelance photographer and got arrested when he was mistaken for a CIA spy. Shortly after, he moved to the island and lived with the musicians, including his friend Augustus Pablo, who he would eventually cast for “Rockers.” The film’s stars were basically on the frontlines of reggae during a peak moment in the history of the music. “Rockers” is considered a canonical archive of the grass roots of reggae.
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net
