Babylon

Director: Franco Rosso

1980 / 95min / DCP

In Brixton at the outset of the Thatcher years, Black reggae DJ Brinsley Forde (frontman of UK outfit Aswad) fights to make his way in the music business, while beset on all sides by the racism of the police, the National Front, and his London neighbors. Unreleased in the US, Rosso’s hard-nosed, indignant, and utterly compelling sound system drama, driven along by a pulsing dub-infused soundtrack, gradually became a cult item in the UK, surpassing screenwriter Martin Stellman’s stated ambition to produce “a British reggae version of Mean Streets” to become a great film in its own right and a singular document of South London immigrant life.

Extended introduction by Bradford Young 9:30pm Friday, February 3