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Dread Beat and Blood
Vibrant documentary portrait of dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson, fighting racism with the spoken word on the streets of 1970s Brixton.
Director: Franco Rosso
Overview
This vibrant portrait of dub poet and political activist Linton Kwesi Johnson transports us back to the turbulent streets of Brixton in the late 1970s. Jamaican-born Johnson explains with precise and powerful eloquence the violence and racism meted out to Black and Asian communities in London and beyond - and how his poetry acts as a weapon in the struggle for justice.
Dread Beat and Blood, funded by the Arts Council, takes its title from Johnson's 1975 book of poetry and seminal 1978 album, recorded under the moniker Poet and the Roots. Director Franco Rossi revisited South London's sound system culture in his 1980 feature film debut, Babylon.
references to violence and racism, drug references, strong language
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