Title: Kevin Macdonald Talks MARLEY, Music and Marijuana

source:the hollywood reporter

Excerpt: An Oscar winner for One Day in September, Macdonald had first tried to make a film about Marley seven years ago, around the time of what would have been the icon’s 60th birthday, but it never happened. He says he spent enough time in Jamaica working on it, however, to be on the radar of Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who brought him in years later to meet with the Marley family on making an officially sanctioned documentary.

Excerpt: “They really wanted to make a film,” says Macdonald, the last in a line of high-profile directors, such as Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme, to discuss a film with Marley's many children. “They had felt like, before everyone dies who knew their dad and before that whole part of history disappears, we want to get it on film. The family learned a lot of stuff from watching the film that they didn’t know.”

Excerpt: Still, Macdonald feels that another result of his movie reaching a wide audience will be to dispel the notion that Marley’s marijuana use spoke to a certain slow-paced or lazy lifestyle. “He’s a guy who was driven, ambitious, hard-working — he drove his band to practice for 18 hours a day, he would do anything to get his music heard,” Macdonald says. “He really thought he was spreading a message.”

Title: SXSW 2012: 'Marley' documentary

source:usa today

Excerpt: Even Marley's children discovered new aspects of their father's life in the poignant film, directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland). "Especially the last half (of his life), when he was taken ill and not around us," said son Ziggy Marley at a red carpet event for the film's U.S. premiere.

"We learned a lot about that and some of the earlier stuff when he was coming up through Trenchtown and the Wailers," he said. "There was a lot of stuff we didn't know about that we know now."

Excerpt: The film, which comes to theaters and on demand/digital outlets April 20, takes viewers to Marley's Jamaican birthplace and resting place. He passed away May 11, 1981 at the age of 36. "He was a young man," said Ziggy Marley. "A lot of people know about the singing star and the legend. This is all of Bob not just a part of him. They are going to feel an emotional connection to Bob that has never been documented before."

Title: MARLEY is iron like a lion in Zion

source:london film fanatiq

Excerpt: While there have been no shortages on Bob Marley documentaries, it’s only now, with the arrival of Academy Award winning film-maker Kevin Macdonald’s Marley, that the whole, true story of the reggae legend can finally be told, over 30 years after his untimely death. Yes, Marley is touted as the definite Bob Marley doc, but be assured, this is not hyperbole. Marley is comprehensive and leaves no stone unturned as it explores the life of this internationally iconic superstar.

Excerpt: Running just shy of two and a half hours, Marley is a meaty chronicle of the Jamaican’s life. However, not a minute here is wasted. The story of a man whose music has spanned the globe for decades and remains just as inspirational today as it was 35 years ago is entirely deserving of full and extended attention.

Excerpt: With Macdonald’s Marley, the world has finally been provided with a film that completely illustrates the legacy of this larger-than-life figure and deserves a place alongside the work of the man himself. 10/10

Title: MARLEY reviewed

source:culthub

Excerpt: Kevin Macdonald's biopic is a must see for fans and educational for those who aren't old enough to remember his career. The singer's life has been widely reported and scrutinised but this documentary meets the people that influenced him as a person and his music.

Excerpt: The documentary is also a musical journey, explaining the development of reggae and the sub-culture is created and the elements that make a track reggae in the first place. The lyrics in the songs add to the tale and are explained, analysed, played back to relatives to garner their reaction of their new found fresh perspective.

Excerpt: Oscar winning director Kevin Macdonald manages to put Bob's family and friends at ease coaxing out eccentric personalities and charming witty tales while fully capturing all the quirkiness of them as individuals and their surroundings. He even tracks down Bob's first music teacher who remembers the first song she taught him. The testimony follows the reggae artist through marriage, affairs, children (eleven known descendants from seven different women), politics, exile and finally cancer. Macdonald uses a wide variety of archive imagery and footage of Marley's life and filmed as far afield as Ghana, Japan, the UK as well as the US and Marley's home in Jamaica.

Title: Marley flick for 'Park' premiere

source:jamaica observer

Excerpt: MARLEY, a documentary on the life of reggae superstar Bob Marley, will premiere at Emancipation Park, Kingston, on Thursday, April 19 and is free to the public.

Excerpt: The 2 1/2-hour film, part of the Marley family's contribution to Jamaica's 50 anniversary of Independence celebration, will be shown a day before its international release, giving Jamaicans the opportunity to see one of the most definitive authorised film on his life, legacy and global impact.

Excerpt: The Marleys and co-executive producer, Chris Blackwell, are expecting a record turnout for the event, as Marley marks the first time the family has authorised the use of images and film footage from their personal archives. It will be released in the United States by Magnolia Pictures and will also be available on Video OnDemand.

Title: Marley premiere at SXSW

source:vh1

Excerpt: VH1's Emmy award-winning “Rock Docs” franchise will premiere two new documentaries during the SXSW Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures’ “Marley,” the first film to tell the definitive life story of revolutionary music icon Bob Marley, will be making its North American premiere at SXSW on March 11th at 5:30PM CT.

Excerpt: “Marley,” a documentary about legendary musician Bob Marley will premiere on March 11th at 5:30PM CT at SXSW. Made with the unprecedented support of the Marley family, “Marley” is the first film to tell the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his earliest days to his rise to international super-stardom. Along with an incredible soundtrack, the film features rare footage, archival photos, and incredible performances and interviews with his family, friends, and band mates – the people that knew him best. “Marley” is directed by Academy Award-winner Kevin Macdonald and produced by Steve Bing and Charles Steel, and executive produced by Bob’s son Ziggy Marley and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. “Marley” will be opening in select theaters and can be found on VOD (video on demand) on April 20th.

Title: Review of Marley by Soul Culture

source:soul culture

Excerpt: 144 minutes long, Marley investigates many elements of Bob’s life that have never been documented without dwelling on the more publicised areas of his life – be it his use of marijuana or various relationships with women outside of his marriage.

Excerpt: With iconic sound bites from Bob, use of archive photos and footage that takes us from his start to end, the film pays strong attention to detail. Working closely with Bob’s family and friends on this picture makes Marley an authentic and honest look back into a historic time in music and culture.

Title: Discussions on Marley movie

source:flicks and bits

Excerpt: Directed by Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland, State of Play), ‘Marley’ is a documentary on the life, music, and legacy of the legendary singer, visionary, champion of freedom, songwriter and musician, Bob Marley. It is the first feature backed by the Marley family as well as the legend’s long-time music label head Chris Blackwell, providing us with the most insightful look at his life yet as it follows “the musician, revolutionary and legend from his earliest days to his rise to international superstardom” using rare footage, archival photos, live performances and interviews with his family, friends and bandmates. ‘Marley’ is set for release April 20th.

Excerpt: Rohan Marley: Yeah. We didn’t grow up thinking about money, we grew up thinking about how we can help each other, how we can help people that are less fortunate. So with the work that we do today, we continue to do what we saw with our eyes what our father did. We know that our father was a man of giving conscience. A caring man that on every Friday at Hope Road, people would come for help, whether they wanted to send their children to school, whether someone needs clothing, food. It’s a bridge, we see it as a way to help our brother man, help people, my father said, “If you’re up, look down, and help your brother man,” you know?

Excerpt: There’s so many documentaries that feature interviews with people that didn’t really actually spend time with the person it’s focusing on. In ‘Marley’ it’s a lot more intimate?

Kevin Macdonald: Yeah. I wanted the film to be as intimate as possible because when I’ve seen other things that have been made or written about Bob Marley, it does feel like there’s so much just talking about him as an icon, the legend he was….but then not much about the human being. I’m the kind of director or person who’s interested in, “Why was somebody like that? What made them like that?” And obviously, with genius’, sometimes you can’t understand, you can’t understand completely where this brilliance, this musical brilliance, this philosophical brilliance came from.

Title: Marley film comes to festival with buzz

source:austin 360

Excerpt: That honor likely goes to Kevin Macdonald's "Marley," the first film ever authorized by late reggae legend Bob Marley's family. The movie made its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February and will make its North American premiere in Austin. With interviews from family, friends and musicians, along with concert footage and rare recordings, the film from "The Last King of Scotland" director sheds light on the myth and the man who died of cancer at the age of 36.

Title: Magnolia Releases First U.S. Trailer for 'Marley' Doc

source:hollywood reporter

Excerpt: Magnolia released the official U.S. trailer Friday for Marley, director Kevin Macdonald’s documentary about the iconic reggae artist. Bob Marley fans will be jammin’ as they get a first real look at the film’s in-depth portrait of the musician, told through the words of the people who knew him best.

Excerpt: Marley premiered earlier in the week at the Berlin Film Festival, where it drew strong praise from critics for its straightforward portrait of the artist’s life. Magnolia picked up the rights to the film just a day after Marley’s birthday, February 6, and plans to release the film on April 20, 2012, commemorating the appropriately semi-related date associated with smoking marijuana.

Title: Marley reviewed on Paste

source:paste magazine

Excerpt: Marley offers an expansive and at times fascinating perspective on the man through interviews with his fellow former Wailers, family, and childhood friends. The film is fairly detailed concerning Marley’s songwriting and musicianship from his early ska days up through the release of Catch a Fire.

Excerpt: Macdonald’s documentary offers some intriguing insights into Marley’s life through the variety of interviews he includes.

Excerpt: Island Records head Chris Blackwell, an important player in Marley’s career and success, refers to him as a “black rock act.” And the Wailers used to practice at the local cemetery in order to conquer their stage fright by singing for the “duppies,” or evil spirits. It’s details like this that make another exploration of a well-documented life worth the effort, especially when that life belongs to someone as profoundly interesting and influential as Bob Marley.

Title: Marley film has Berlin critics crowing

source:reuters

Excerpt: Oscar-winning documentary maker Kevin Macdonald has made what critics are calling the definitive biography of reggae legend Bob Marley, aided by the singer's family and record label who have given the project their blessing.

Excerpt: "I just felt like there weren't any good films about him and a lot of misinformation," Macdonald told Reuters this week.
"I wanted to make a very simple film. It's the most conventional film I think I ever made, very straight forward, just trying to be a detective and uncover the truth about his life and the truth about his character."

Title: Marley review from the Guardian

source:the guardian

Excerpt: What results is an immensely detailed overview of Marley's life and times, from the hillside Jamaican shack where he grew up to the snowy Bavarian clinic where he spent his last weeks in a fruitless attempt to cure the cancer that killed him in 1981, aged 36. Arguably the first third is the most revelatory, with photographs of a heartbreakingly young and clean-cut Marley hacking his way through the Jamaican charts with the first, ska-influenced, incarnation of the Wailers: hits like Simmer Down and their warbling version of Teenager in Love, put them on the map in the mid-60s.

Excerpt: Macdonald, however, is clearly concerned to offer more than a straight music biog; he grapples at length with Marley's philosophical and religious convictions, as well as his precarious place above the fray of Jamaica's post-colonial political antagonism.

Excerpt: At well over two hours, Macdonald's film packs a lot in; Marley's wife, girlfriends, several of his children, art director, manager and sidemen – all get a showing. But then Marley was a larger-than-life figure, bestriding his era like some denim-clad colossus; he's worth the extra time investment.

Title: The man behind the legend

source:canada.com

Excerpt: BERLIN - He was a musician, a spiritual leader, a ladies' man, a smoker of heroic amounts of ganja, a political force and a religious icon. And, 31 years after his death, Bob Marley is still a chart-topper: His Legends album sells 250,000 copies a year, even now.

Excerpt: ``Everywhere in the world people look at Bob as some kind of leader, philosopher, prophet, someone who speaks to their lives and in whom they find wisdom,'' says Scottish filmmaker Kevin Macdonald. ``It's fascinating: Why is that? Nobody else has had that effect in music.''

Excerpt: ``I went into the Kampala slums with some of my actors, and people had Bob Marley pictures, graffiti, pictures,'' Macdonald said. ``Twenty-five years after he died, he still had a huge impact. There's no other musician I can think of who has that position in culture, so long after he's dead, and so far away, in a poor part of a central African city.''

Title: Bob Marley documentary unveiled

source:la times

Excerpt: A long-awaited Bob Marley documentary premiered Sunday at Berlin’s International Film Festival, and -- people get ready -- will open in U.S. theaters April 20 after playing the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, in March.

Excerpt: Macdonald told journalists at the Berlinale he had just 13 months to work on the bio-doc, which spans 2½ hours, packing in numerous interviews with mostly admiring family members, friends, lovers and musicians, historical concert footage, rare recordings, and 50 of Bob Marley’s songs, and 10 from other artists).

Excerpt: Marley saw his music and public self as an extension of his Rastafarian beliefs and rarely shunned a chance to perform, sometimes for free, and even spending $90,000 to fly his band to Zimbabwe for a concert to mark the country’s independence. He was claimed by both sides of the warring political gangs in Jamaica, though he professed no allegiance, and played a birthday show for Gabon’s dictator president. He was competitive in all parts of his life, driving his children and his band to achieve his level of perfection.

Title: Bob Marley - the Cornerstone in Kevin Macdonald's Documentary

source:huffington post

Excerpt: As seen at the world premeiere of Marley at the Berlin Film Festival last night, Bob Marley has found a champion in the innovative filmmaker Macdonald - who says that he hopes he has made the "definitive documentary" - to chart his extraordinary and thrilling life.

Excerpt: One of the challenges in making a documentary of Bob Marley's life is finding reliable witnesses. Indeed, Jamaica is a country where it is famously said: "there are no facts, only versions". And Macdonald's film occasionally struggles to free itself from being held hostage to some dubious "versions".

Excerpt: After the agony of the false starts, and the trials and tribulations of the earlier directors on this project, Kevin Macdonald provides us with the ecstasy of Marley. Through the extraordinary music, the colour, story-telling and imagery you will emerge from the cinema transformed.

Title: Bob Marley documentary electrifies Berlin

source:afp

Excerpt: BERLIN — A hotly awaited documentary on Bob Marley has premiered to cheers at the Berlin film festival, tracking his journey from bullied biracial Jamaican boy to reggae superstar.
"Marley" by Oscar-winning Scottish film-maker Kevin Macdonald is a two-and-half-hour-long tribute to a child of the Kingston ghettos who made reggae a global phenomenon by the sheer force of his talent and charisma.

Excerpt: "For me, Bob is really one of the greatest cultural figures of 20th century. I don't think anyone in popular music has had the same lasting impact that he has," Macdonald, 44, told reporters after a rapturously received screening.
"Anywhere you go in the world, you find his image, his music, his wisdom -- literally anywhere you go. So it's nice to be a small part of that and hopefully to bring to people around the world a sense of who this man was as a human being, not just as the legend, not just as the great icon."

Excerpt: The film also traces the impact of Jamaica's rampant political violence, in which Marley was once shot during a live performance, the singer's Rastafarian beliefs and attachment to Africa -- he sang at Robert Mugabe's inauguration in Zimbabwe in 1980 -- and his attempts to battle cancer before his death at 36.
A rousing sequence runs during the final credits in which fans across Asia, Africa, America and Europe keep the Marley legend alive, singing along to his songs.

Title: Marley: Berlin Film Review

source:hollywood reporter

Excerpt: Stirring up an exhaustive portrait of the legend behind the music, Kevin Macdonald’s Marley is sure to become the definitive documentary on the much beloved king of reggae. Filled with thrilling concert footage and scores of in-depth interviews with the singer-songwriter’s friends, family and fellow Wailers, this all-encompassing, rather classically assembled biography forges a moving depiction of an artist who left the scene way too prematurely.

Excerpt: Though there are too many such details to recall here, perhaps most intriguing is the prejudice Marley suffered as a child from a mixed racial background, with an elderly white father he never really knew (and who himself sired several children with various women). The unifying message of songs like “One Love” seem at least partially motivated by the hatred he experienced early on, as does his conversion to Rastafarianism at a young age.

Excerpt: But eventually it leads toward a lengthy and stirring finale showcasing some of the artist’s greatest live performances, the last ones given when he was terminally ill. Most notable are two late concerts in Kingston, the first for which he was shot at in a botched assassination attempt (“as professional as Jamaicans get,” cracks one band member) by one of the country’s rival political parties/street gangs. The fact that Marley persisted in appearing on stage reveals to what extent he was invested in unifying his violent homeland, and the closing credits reveal how his message continues to resonate in the present day.

Title: Bob Marley’s Passions Extended Beyond Ganja, Women, Soccer

source:bloomberg

Excerpt: There is some sadness in her eyes that suggests suppressed pain, softened by the years. Rita is among those interviewed for “Marley,” a thoughtful portrait of the reggae king directed by Kevin Macdonald and premiering at the Berlin Film Festival.

Excerpt: Talking about Marley without using the word “Legend” is hard. The album of that name has sold more than 10 million copies and continues to sell 250,000 a year. Marley died in 1981, when he was 36 years old, of cancer -- long before the advent of the Internet, yet he has more than 33 million followers on Facebook and Twitter.

Excerpt: This film brings the man behind the legend a few steps closer, into sharper focus. As well as Rita, interview partners include Bob’s mother; two of his 11 or 12 children; the one surviving original Wailer; a former Miss World who was one of the lovers; and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell.

Excerpt: “Marley” aims to be the definitive, official film on the subject and, as such, is conventional in its approach. It doesn’t give critics a voice, and in some places, seems to aim to stoke the legend rather than take us behind it. Yet the conversations with family and close friends yield nuggets that offer a more complete, intimate picture of a driven man.
The last part of the film takes us to the snowbound German holistic clinic where Marley spent his last months in 1981. A melanoma that he thought had been removed from his toe had metastasized and taken over his body. If he’d had regular medical checkups after the toe operation, it might have been caught earlier and he could still be alive, Blackwell says.

Title: Bob Marley Feature Film

source:shadow and act

Excerpt: First, let’s revisit the long and winding path that Bob Marley projects have taken, since the Warner Bros announcement in 1999…

Excerpt: so there was the 1999 Warner Bros. project which was to be based on Timothy White’s 1998 novel Catch A fire: The Life of Bob Marley; the film was to star Bob Marley’s son Rohan (as Bob) and Lauryn Hill (as Rita Marley), but nothing ever materialized.

Excerpt: In all, it appears to me that the Marleys were simply trying to give Bob a proper remembrance on film, and would go with whomever they felt provided them the best opportunity to ensure that happened.

Excerpt: Fast-forward to today, February 2nd, 2011, as news comes that Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald (director of documentaries like One Day In September and Touching the Void) has signed on to direct Marley, a production that’s being put together with “full cooperation of Marley’s family,” as Deadline states. It looks like he’s just taking over the Scorsese/Demme documentary that’s been in limbo for awhile now.

Title: Rohan Marley Says No Actor Can Play Bob Marley

source:indiewire

Excerpt: The long struggle to get a Bob Marley film made has been well documented on Shadow And Act (I recommend reading this post for the details: http://bit.ly/hEs4jj). What we have ended up with after all that is Kevin Macdonald's documentary MARLEY, which will world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival this month

Excerpt: 
He said: "My father was not just a man, but a spirit dancer. You have to come with that vibration and it is not something you can act. In Jamaica, when you are a light skin, you are the outcast. To play my father, his struggles and how he overcame it all, would require you to bring tears to my eyes. It has to be one of his sons. And we're not, none of us, in Hollywood."

Title: Berlin 2012: Director Kevin Macdonald Bob Marley

source:the hollywood reporter

Excerpt: Macdonald's Marley, which contains 50 songs from the late reggae legend and 10 from other artists, aims to be the definitive documentary about Marley, who died of brain cancer in 1981 at age 36.

Excerpt: Rohan Marley, one of the singer-songwriter’s 11 children and billed as a protagonist in Macdonald's doc, told a news conference ahead of the movie's official screening that any fictional version to be made requires something no actor has.
"My father was not just a man but a spirit dancer,” Marley said. “You have to come with that vibration, and it is not something you can act." He added: "In Jamaica, when you are a light-skin, you are the outcast. To play my father, his struggles and how he overcame it all, would require you to bring tears to my eyes."

Title: Marley Sculpture Erected at UTech

source:jamaica information service

Excerpt: The University of Technology (UTech) on Monday (February 6), unveiled a sculpture of late Reggae icon, Robert Nesta “Bob” Marley, at its Papine campus in St. Andrew.

Excerpt: The unveiling of the Bob Marley sculpture coincided with the 67th anniversary of the late Reggae exponent’s birth, and was one of two pieces formally presented to UTech. The second was a sculpture, dubbed: “People’s Organism”, designed by Jamaican artist and Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) alumnus, Warren Buckle.

Excerpt: The Minister also commended UTech’s input in the undertaking through, among other things, facilitating its erection in the Caribbean Sculpture Park. She urged the institution to build on the Marley legacy by ensuring that students have an outlet for “putting their talent to work”.

“As we confront the challenges in our fiscal space, we must reflect on the need to put in place, systems to bring greater prosperity to our people, especially our young people, and unearth the fire in them that drives them to reach higher and to do more. We must learn from the achievements of Bob Marley to, first, believe in our culture, and then invest in its capacity to transform our lives and create wealth among our people,” she asserted.

Title: Marley still climbs the charts

source:jamaica observer

Excerpt: THIRTY-ONE years after his death, Bob Marley continues to outsell contemporary reggae and dancehall stars.

Excerpt: On the latest Billboard Digital Reggae singles chart, Marley registers 14 songs including One Love, Buffalo Soldier, Is This Love and No Woman Nuh Cry. However, it's the single Three Little Birds, at number three, that has registered the biggest download sales to date. Some 1,358,184 downloads have been sold in the United States.

Excerpt: Marley's most recent album, the live Bob Marley & the Wailers: Live Forever-the Stanley Theatre 1980, debuted and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard 200 Album chart last year. It currently holds the number five spot on the Billboard Reggae Album chart, selling 72,212 copies according to sales tracker Nielsen Soundscan.

Title: Honouring Marley

source:jamaica observer

Excerpt: BOB Marley has received countless awards and honours since his death in 1981. Splash highlights 10 of those posthumous achievements.

Excerpt: * March, 1994 — Bob Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In his tribute, British singer Robert Palmer said, "No one in rock and roll has left a musical legacy that matters more or one that matters in such fundamental ways."

Excerpt: * In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Marley number 11 on its list of 100 Greatest Artistes of All Time. In the Rolling Stone article, rapper Wyclef Jean said, "Marley brought the idea that through music, empowerment and words, you can really come up with world peace".

Excerpt: * In 2010, the classic 1973 album, Catch a Fire, was among 25 inductees into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Other Marley productions previously inducted include Get Up, Stand Up, No Woman No Cry, Exodus and One Love.

Title: Bob's I-Three

source:jamaica observer

Excerpt: The I-Three — Rita Marley, Marcia Griffith and Judy Mowatt — achieved fame providing rich harmonies for Bob Marley from 1974 until his death seven years later.

Excerpt: "It was like a shepherd leading his sheep. The moments were unforgettable because at that time I think I knew who that man was — that he was a prophet truly sent," Griffiths said.

Excerpt: Fellow I-Three Judy Mowatt describes working with Bob like "attending an institution of higher learning where discipline was a priority".She continues, "You would rehearse when there was no show, and before every studio session we would practice until the vocals and music became one — in total harmony like an excellent marriage. He was driven to perfection, and that was apart of the secret to his success."

Title: Restoration for Gong's Land Rover

source:the gleaner

Excerpt: Two days ago, a 1976 Land Rover that was reputedly the late Bob Marley's favourite vehicle moved from the place it had been for a quarter century. It took one of the 'country runs' which Marley used to make, but not with anyone in the driver's seat.

The vehicle was moved to Montego Bay, St James, to local Land Rover dealer ATL's Montego Bay offices, to be assessed ahead of restoration. When it was finished, the Bob Marley Museum and Jacqueline Lynch-Stewart, Bob Marley Foundation's general manager, said, the 1976 Land Rover will be put back on display at 56 Hope Road.

Excerpt: "It has been at the museum since it opened," Lynch-Stewart said. "It is always at the front." After having been exhibited in the open air under a covering but no sides for a quarter century, "over the years, it has naturally deteriorated".

"We made contact with them (ATL) to see if it could be restored. They then contacted the headquarters in London, so this discussion has been going on for some time," Lynch-Stewart said. Next for the Land Rover, she said, is "to pull it down, assess what is required and take it from there. They don't know what they will find".

Title: Marley movie set for SXSW

source:realscreen

Excerpt: The film, which examines the life and times of reggae legend Bob Marley, is billed as having been made with the support of the artist’s family, and promises to be “the definitive life story” of the musician, featuring “rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.”

Excerpt: Marley is one of the first seven films named for this year’s Austin event, and the only documentary announced so far. On the conference side of the event, SXSW has also unveiled a number of panel sessions slated for this year’s event.

Title: Bob rules digital charts

source:jamaica observer

Excerpt: REGGAE King Bob Marley still reigns supreme. According to popular digital music outlet iTunes, the Jamaican icon and his 1984 compilation album Legend has the number one spot in 17 of 22 international markets .

Excerpt: So dominant is Bob Marley's music, he holds six spots on Norway's and Spain's top 10 album charts. Similarly, he holds five spots in Belgium, Portugal and The Netherlands.

Excerpt: The younger Marley appears on the top 10 in four countries. In the United States his Grammy-winning album Welcome to Jamrock is at number eight, it holds the number five spot in the United Kingdom and Canada, and number three in Ireland. His 2002 release Half Way Tree is number three in Canada.

Title: Africa Unite projected through Bob's eyes

source:jamaica gleaner

Excerpt: Black notes that while the film does not have a heavy Bob Marley presence, it is replete with what was important to him - the continent of Africa, his family, Haile Selassie and the concept of African unity. "I feel those are the ingredients in the film," Black said. "We are looking through his eyes. I felt that is was all the things he loved."

Excerpt: Camera crews went to different locations - the conference, Jubilee Palace and Shashamane, where there is a Rastafari community. A crew also accompanied the Marley family on their aeroplane flight. Naturally, a lot of resources were required for the concert, which Black said attracted 300,000 persons.

Excerpt: Among her more cherished moments from Africa Unite are American actor Danny Glover speaking to a granddaughter of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, telling her about the significance of Selassie's pre World War II speech to the League of Nations.

Title: The Bob Marley legacy 30 years later

source:digital journal

Excerpt: Reggae is far from either the most innovative or exciting type of music, but even people who have no great affinity for it tend to like at least a couple of Bob Marley tracks. One Love is arguably his best known and best loved composition.

Excerpt: Marley was a follower of Marcus Garvey, one of the truly great Negro intellectuals of the late 19th/early 20th Centuries, and someone who like Major Douglas has been largely written out of history, albeit for different reasons.
He was also an adherent of the somewhat comical Rastafari cult, but in spite of this, many of his songs have a universal quality to them.

Excerpt: We probably won't know for at least another hundred years where the music of Bob Marley belongs in the hierarchy of contemporary music, if there is such a thing as hierarchy anymore, but there can be little double that just as his music is still being played thirty years after his death, so it will still be played one hundred and thirty years after his death. Assuming of course, we haven't heeded Marley's message of One Love, and destroy the world in the meantime.

Title: Kevin MacDonald Says His 'Marley' Doc Is Headed To TIFF

source:indiewire

Excerpt: “I’ve got the Bob Marley film, which I should be finishing up the edit of today,” he told us. “And then the plan is to take it to Toronto.” While not officially announced (yet) as part of TIFF, who unveiled their first wave of films this morning, attendees in Toronto can add another big ticket title to their plans.

Excerpt: But MacDonald didn’t just finish Demme’s work. He explained, “I came on, started over from scratch, and I’ve made my film, which has been a great experience.” It looks like we’ll get our first taste in Toronto and with Marley touching upon music, politics and culture in a way that very few artists ever do, it should be a fascinating portrait of a man whose influence clearly resonates.

Excerpt: Still, he says, the idea nagged at him: “When I went to Uganda for ‘Last King of Scotland’ I was amazed at how Marley was present there and I’ve subsequently seen it in other parts of the developing world – Marley as this kind of saint, a philosophical and religious figure.

Title: Bob Marley presides over the Peace Concert

source:guardian

Excerpt: The One Love Peace Concert, held in the outdoor National Stadium in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, was the longest and most political reggae concert ever staged, and one of the most remarkable musical events I have attended. That day in April was a remarkable day for Jamaican reggae and its greatest celebrity, Bob Marley. It started at 5pm, and ended, under a full moon, in the early hours of the following morning with the prime minister Michael Manley and opposition leader Edward Seaga embracing two previously notorious rival gang leaders, Bucky Marshall and Claude Massop. The two political leaders then joined hands with Bob Marley, in an emotional scene that was made all the more bizarre by the billowing marijuana clouds provided by the watching Rastafarians.

Excerpt: Considering the background, the Peace Concert was a remarkably easy-going event. The crowd was informed that Mick Jagger and the foreign press were present, and watching them, and there were constant chants of "peace" from the Rastas. For their part, the politicians and security forces refused to be publicly angered either by outspoken comments by the musicians or the blatant marijuana smoking by the Rastas. If they had reacted, there would have been a riot.

Title: "B is for Bob" in top ten

source:seattle weekly

Excerpt: ​8. The Marley Legacy. Both Ziggy and Bob can count a kids' album in their canon--there's Family Time by Ziggy Marley and B Is for Bob, 12 acoustic re-imaginings of some of Marley's most beloved hits. (Sharing music is one thing; Reverb suggests you wait until Junior gets a bit older to share a family spliff).

Title: Bob: an inspiring African story

source:the sunday independent

Excerpt: Thirty years ago, on May 11, Bob Marley died of cancer in a Miami hospital at 36. The Jamaican reggae star was a musical genius and prophet of pan-Africanism who also spread the gospel of Rastafarianism across the world. Marley’s astonishing legacy is confirmed by the fact that his music, involving about 20 albums, still accounts for half of all reggae music sold. He is probably the most famous and recognisable individual ever to have emerged from the Caribbean.

Excerpt: Marley identified strongly with Africa throughout his life. As he memorably noted: “A people without knowledge of their past is no better than a tree without roots.”

Excerpt: Having sold $240 million worth of records to date, these tributes were fitting celebrations of the life and times of a musical legend who had uncompromisingly and eloquently told the anguished story of Africa and its diaspora.

Title: The Grammy Museum: Bob Marley, Messenger

source:the grammy museum

Excerpt: On May 11, 2011, The GRAMMY Museum debuted a new exhibit, Bob Marley, Messenger. Housed on the Museum's second floor, the exhibit focues on Bob Marley as a private, spiritual man, as a powerful performer who used his lyrics to give a voice to the disenfranchised and as a legend who has inspired legions of fans in the 30 years since his death. Bringing together more than 40 diverse artifacts, rare photographs and more, the exhibit features items from the private collection of the Marley family.

Title: Get up, standup

source:times live

Excerpt: Thirty years after his death, it is still almost impossible to fully engage with Bob Marley's legacy. We're somehow too closeto his music, still baffled by his songs playing everywhere - in varsity residences, coffee shops, movie soundtracks, Rasta flops and more. He remains ubiquitous.

Excerpt: Why is this so? And what makes Marley's music so enduring? We're not the first to ask that question; nor are we the first to posit that his music endures because it is so sublimely good. One needs no background to love his songs, but to properly understand its place and cultural cache does require a quick refresher.

Excerpt: Bob Marley wanted to change the world. He didn't. He left it better, or at least altered, with some of the most beautiful and stirring popular music ever created. The meaning of that music - its political intent - has been denuded over the years, been wiped clean of nuance by dint of its ubiquity. Marley's message would have meant nothing if no one had heard him; it means nothing because everyone has heard him. He is not dangerous because he is so thoroughly plugged into the mainstream that Blackman Redemption is a slow song at a school dance, and Zimbabwe is a filler cut to mix summer cocktails to. Perhaps, had Marley not died so young, his empathy could have morphed him into an international statesman like Bono. Who knows?

Title: Interview with Ziggy about Bob

source:the daily beast

Excerpt: "Bob was a very active person and, as kids, whether it would be a pickup soccer game or on the beach to run, he would take us with him. But Bob also grew up tough, in the ghetto, so he was a fighter. He had to fight and was capable of defending himself.

Excerpt: "One time, we went to Zimbabwe, and it was guerrilla warfare at the time because they were still under colonial British rule. When Bob went over there to play for the independence concert, he took me and my brother Stephen with him. I was about 11. The guerrillas came to visit him because Bob was a revolutionary, and his music was used for revolution. So, the guerrillas came and they started talking, and then one of the guerrillas took out one of these old World War II grenades, and he was showing Bob how to use it. As a kid it was like, 'Wow! A grenade!' It didn’t scare me, but it tested me.

Excerpt: "I was 12 when my father passed, so I didn’t have a father during my teenage years. I grew up doing stuff on my own, learning from my mistakes. But Bob was a strong person even in the hospital when I saw him a few days before he passed away. I was staring at him through the window of the door at the ICU, and I don’t think he liked me seeing him that way. He told me, 'Move from the window. The last time we spoke, he called me and he said, 'What’s up Young Bob. I have a song for you.' And his song was, 'On your way up / Take me up / On your way down / Don’t let me down.' That’s all he said. And then I used that for a song called, 'Won’t Let You Down.' "

Title: Weeklong Tribute to Bob Marley

source:ew.com

Excerpt: Starting on Monday, May 9, the musical guests on Late Night will all tip their (giant, dread-covering) hats to reggae legend Bob Marley in honor of the 30th anniversary of the great one’s passing.

Excerpt: “Big up Jimmy Fallon for honoring the memory of my father,” said son Ziggy, who will also spend time on the couch discussing his father’s legacy with Fallon. “Much respect.”

Title: Bob Marley was 'beyond' famous, says director

source:bbc

Excerpt: The Oscar-winning film-maker behind The Last King of Scotland says he is making the film, Marley, because of the star's "continued resonance around the world".

"He's gone beyond being a famous musician, he's now a philosopher and prophet," he adds.

Excerpt: Macdonald has been given unprecedented access to the Marley family's private archives - the first time they have granted a film-maker full authorisation.

Excerpt: "I think that what is important is what he says to people around the world. He manages to be a serious political figure to some, but he can also be an icon of rebellion."

Title: Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle to feature in Bob Marley documentary

source:ghana business news

Excerpt: The Cape Coast Castle was chosen to feature in ‘Marley’ because of the historical role it played during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. It is also to show the reggae legend’s ancestral slave roots.

Excerpt: “The opening shot of the film will feature a tour of Cape Coast Castle, a fortification in Ghana that contains the infamous “Door of No Return” through which many Africans passed before being shipped into slavery”, Los Angeles Times reported citing the film director and Oscar-winner, Kevin Macdonald on February 8, 2011.

Excerpt: Considered a true legend, Bob is one of the most influential singers, songwriters, musicians and activists in history as well as famous Jamaican singer and songwriter
Generally credited as having popularized reggae music on a global scale, Bob Marley was the lead singer and guitarist of The Wailers from 1974 up until his death in 1981.

Title: Bob Marley: The Lion's Last Roar

source:relix

Excerpt: On September 23, 1980, Bob Marley took the stage at The Stanley Theatre in Pittsburgh, and played the longest known concert of his life—a three-encore epic that culminated with a six and a half-minute rendition of “Get Up, Stand Up.” Months earlier, tickets sold out immediately for the gig, and when Marley and the Wailers finally arrived, the capacity crowd of 3,500 got everything they wanted, and more than they even understood. Having spent that night watching from the wings, peering out at the frenzied, packed house, owner/promoter and fervent Marley fan Rich Engler remembers being spellbound. “It was spectacular. I can’t even put into words how good it was. They just lit it up."

Title: Ziggy Marley on Legend Bob Marley's Tough Love

source:the daily beast

Excerpt: "Bob was a very active person and, as kids, whether it would be a pickup soccer game or on the beach to run, he would take us with him. But Bob also grew up tough, in the ghetto, so he was a fighter. He had to fight and was capable of defending himself.

Excerpt: He was known for speed and footwork. Of course, he won. He didn’t cut you no slack. No headgear, just gloves. He toughened us up, you know? He always wanted us to be tough, so he gave us that tough treatment.

Excerpt: And what I realized is that when I’m fighting, in those days, I would fight to stop fighting. But some people are fighting to really hurt you. During that fight I realized that I was thinking the same thing—I have to really hurt this person—and realized that not everyone thinks the same as you do during a fight, so if you’re going to get in a fight, make sure it’s for the right reasons.

Excerpt: The last time we spoke, he called me and he said, 'What’s up Young Bob. I have a song for you.' And his song was, 'On your way up / Take me up / On your way down / Don’t let me down.' That’s all he said. And then I used that for a song called, 'Won’t Let You Down.' "

Title: Bob Marley presides over the Peace Concert

source:the guardian

Excerpt: The One Love Peace Concert, held in the outdoor National Stadium in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, was the longest and most political reggae concert ever staged, and one of the most remarkable musical events I have attended. That day in April was a remarkable day for Jamaican reggae and its greatest celebrity, Bob Marley. It started at 5pm, and ended, under a full moon, in the early hours of the following morning with the prime minister Michael Manley and opposition leader Edward Seaga embracing two previously notorious rival gang leaders, Bucky Marshall and Claude Massop. The two political leaders then joined hands with Bob Marley, in an emotional scene that was made all the more bizarre by the billowing marijuana clouds provided by the watching Rastafarians.

Excerpt: This was also the first concert that Bob Marley, Jamaica's international celebrity, had given in his homeland in a year and a half. He had left the country after what appeared to be a politically motivated assassination attempt in December 1976, when unknown gunmen, assumed to be linked to the JLP, fired on him inside his home, wounding the singer in the chest and arm. Opposition groups claimed that Marley supported Manley, because he had agreed to appear at the Smile Jamaica free concert, organised by Manley, which aimed to stop fighting between the warring political street gangs.

Title: Get up, standup

source:times live

Excerpt: Thirty years after his death, it is still almost impossible to fully engage with Bob Marley's legacy. We're somehow too closeto his music, still baffled by his songs playing everywhere - in varsity residences, coffee shops, movie soundtracks, Rasta flops and more. He remains ubiquitous

Excerpt: Marijuanaman, then, is another shard of Bob Marley's legacy tossed into the pop cultural maw. Indeed, Marley almost singlehandedly brought the idea of marijuana smoking into the mainstream, defending it as a cornerstone of his religious and cultural beliefs. This was only one element of his persona that, all things being equal, should have shut him out of the broader cultural arena. His politics was another. But rather, Marley was embraced. His 1984 album Legend has sold at least 25-million copies, and continues to sell a few hundred thousand a year. When kids are discovering music, they will inevitably make a pit stop at that album. Many stay there for a lifetime.

Excerpt: Now, though, he is Marijuanaman. A character at a safe remove from reality. Thirty years after his death his music means everything and nothing. A rebel tamed. A genre co-opted. Still, it's hard not to thank God for his music.