Land Of Look Behind DVD/CD Subversive

A beautiful elegiac film made by the (then) young first time American filmmaker Alan Greenberg in 1982. Originally commissioned by Marley’s mother to make a film of the funeral of Bob Marley, Land Of Look Behind almost organically grew into something else entirely. Devoid of commentary, the film’s somnambulant sweep across the jade Jamaican landscape and its people reveals something of the islands soulful spirit, juxtaposing the extreme poverty of the inhabitants of the rural district known as Look Behind and its surrounding environs with the intense urban huddle of Kingston. This is not really a “reggae” film, though there is some wonderful footage of Gregory Isaacs just prior to his international breakthrough with Night Nurse, live on stage at Skateland, backed by the Roots Radics running through Poor & Clean and Party In The Slum – there are other shots of Isaacs ruling the roost outside his African Museum premises in Chancery Lane. Deejay Lui Lepke performs his Tribute To Bob Marley, Charlie Ace holds forth perched on his famous Swing-A-Ling mobile record shop, scenes outside the infamous Gun Court, Mutabaruka at home reciting his poems including the great Where Do I Belong, but it’s the hallucinatory direct to camera oratory of various dreads and country folk that really burns this film in the mind. The DVD package includes a fascinating booklet written by the director, there’s a revealing interview with Greenberg and noted German director Werner Herzog, and an excellent bonus CD featuring numerous Bob Marley tracks, mainly lifted from Kaya and Exodus, plus the songs and poems performed in the film and dialogue featured, a samplers dream. It all looks like something from a world that doesn’t exist anymore, but that may be where its true worth lies.

Running time: 90 Minutes approx

Format: DVD/CD