Rockers

Directed by Ted Bafaloukos, this is the most cited cinematic record of the Jamaican reggae scene. Horsemouth, a drummer living in Kingston, plans to make money selling records; when his motorcycle is stolen the plan collapses and he has to find his own method. The story is fiction, but the film feels true because most of the cast are playing themselves. Bafaloukos travelled to Jamaica while shooting in Brooklyn in 1975 and built the project there, choosing the drummer Leroy Horsemouth Wallace for the lead. The cast includes Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth, Kiddus I, Burning Spear and Jacob Miller, which makes the film a direct archive of the roots reggae community at the end of the 1970s. The plot resembles the structure of Bicycle Thieves, though the tone is far more cheerful. The musical sequences are embedded in the story rather than standing apart as concert footage. Who it's for: viewers interested in reggae history, Jamaican cinema and films where a musical community tells its own story. Who it's not for: anyone who will struggle to follow Jamaican patois without subtitles, or who wants a tightly plotted story.