LE PREMIER RASTA (The First Rasta), directed by Hélène Lee
KIDAM / PERCY YIP TONG 2011
Pal - All Zones / 1H25
+Long version documentary with subtitles in 3 languages [FRA/ANG/ESP].
+BONUS: live music sessions with Bongo Herman, Abyssinians... , cut scenes and an interview with Hélène Lee.
+BOOKLET: chronology and portraits.
At the beginning of the last century, the young Leonard Percival Howell (1893-1981) left Jamaica, became a sailor and travelled the world. On his way, he came across all the ideas that were stirring the times. From Bolshevism to New Toughness, from Gandhi to anarchism, from Garveyism to psychoanalysis, he had to find his promised land. It was with a cocktail of these ideas that Leonard "Gong" Howell returned to Jamaica to found the first Rasta commune, the Pinnacle, in 1939. From there, the way of life and thought that would nourish the culture of Reggae that Bob Marley would spread throughout the world was developed.
Far from conventional clichés and stereotypes, between archive footage and meetings with those who knew him and crossed paths, Hélène Lee makes a strong, fascinating and moving film about the life and extraordinary personality of the FIRST RASTA, an emblematic figure who has been obscured for too long and whose revolutionary, political and social discourse resonates with today's anti-globalization movements.
With a soundtrack by Bunny Lee, Max Romeo, The Abyssinians, Count Ossie's Drummers, Groundation, 100 Grammes de Têtes and Tu Shung Peng, head back to Kingston and enter the backyards of the ghetto, where it all began! Return to the Pinnacle to meet Miss Audrey White-Lewis, Leonard's son Blade Howell and Filmore Alvaranga of the 1961 Back to Africa mission.
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