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FIRST RASTA / LE PREMIER RASTA
France/Mauritius 2011
Director: Hélène Lee
Docu, 82 min
English / Jamaican spoken
English subtitles
Born in Jamaica in 1898, Leonard Percival Howell was a seaman, traveling the world between 1915 and 1930. Fighting wars, carrying refugees across the oceans, he was exposed to the various dreams and ideologies of his time. Back in Jamaica, he founded the community of Pinnacle, the first Rasta commune ever. This is where the Rasta philosophy and way of life came into being. A striking culture, born out of hardship and persecution, it would in time spread to the four corners of the world on the wing of reggae...
www.lepremierrasta.com
After several translations and numerous articles in the late 70's on Reggae and African music, journalist and writer Hélène Lee published in 1999 her second book in France: The First Rasta. Ten years later, Hélène Lee went back to Jamaica with a cameraman on the trail of a forgotten and overlooked, yet central character in the history of this movement.
Q&A with the director and live music afterwards.