Lee Scratch Perry and new Caribbean cinema at the Tabernacle
Two very different events at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill this month will show how the Caribbean has been and continues to be a hive of creative activity, with one of its iconic figures stepping out of music for a moment to create visual art, and up-and-coming film-makers trying to get noticed.
First up, an icon of reggae, Jamaican musician, producer and generally unusual person Lee “Scratch” Perry, has collaborated with artist Peter Harris to create works that burst with colour and liveliness, much like the legendary man himself. You might not know him, but you’ll have heard many of his cuts on the radio, at the Carnival, or blasting out of windows. Sometimes called “the Jamaican Phil Spector”, he was responsible for producing most of the famous reggae tunes that came out of Jamaica in the 70s. He ran the Black Ark recording studio, which he also claims to have burnt down when he got tired of it.
This project, entitled “Higher Powers” sees him create zany poster-style works, which will be displayed at the Tabernacle in conjunction with songs performed by Perry and mixed live by Adrian Sherwood, founder of On-U Sound Records. The songs relate to a film created by Harris, where he asks a variety of people, including reverends, gangsters and Boris Johnson about their ideas of a higher power. There’s a personal element to the film as Harris found out during the project, begun in 2007, that his sister and father had both been diagnosed with terminal cancer. The event will support CLIC Sargent children’s cancer charity.
The Higher Powers event is on September 10 and tickets cost £20.
Also at the Tabernacle this month is the Portobello Film Festival. Beginning tomorrow, all events are free and films range from Wall-E to a mini-festival within a festival showcasing Caribbean films. Only three hours long, the “Caribbean Film Corner” (September 16) is a chance to see short films from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, with the aim of promoting film-makers from all of the West Indies’ main language groups, and the region itself as a good place to make films. The films range from documentary to one-minute clip, via animated and musical offerings.
The following day, September 17, there will be a director’s and actor’s workshop presented by journalist Franka Philip and including leading British film-maker of Trinidadian descent Horace Ové. There will be an introduction to Ové’s works and a screening, followed by a Q&A.
For more details on all events, visit the Tabernacle website.
