ArtMattan Films acquires North American distribution rights for THE STORY OF LOVERS ROCK.

THE STORY OF LOVERS ROCK is a new documentary film by award winning director/ producer Menelik Shabazz that tells the story of how Lovers Rock music defined a generation in the UK in the late 70s and 80s hugely impacting on British Pop Culture
Lovers Rock, often dubbed romantic reggae, is a unique British sound, the genre developed against a backdrop of racial tension, the Brixton riots and sound systems in the late 70s and 80s. It went from a small UK scene to becoming a global phenomenon through artists like UB40 and Maxi Priest.

The film was released on September 30, 2011 in the UK to great popular and critical acclaim and is currently in theatres in the UK. The Story of Lovers Rock will be the Opening Night Film of the 19th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival
- Nov 25 to Dec. 13.

The film will receive its New York theatrical release in December 2011

For more information about The Story of Lovers Rock please contact ArtMattan Films at info(@)AfricanFilm.com or call (212) 864-1760.

ArtMattan Film acquires US distribution rights for THE FIRST RASTA

THE FIRST RASTA (LE PREMIER RASTA) presents a thorough investigation of Leonard Percival Howell's life (1893-1981), the initiator and catalyst of the Rastafari Movement and the man considered by many as its founder.

At the beginning of the last century, the young Leonard Percival Howell (1893 - 1981) left Jamaica, became a sailor and travelled the world. On his way, he chanced upon all the ideas that stirred his time. From Bolshevism to New Thought, from Gandhi to anarchism, from Garveyism to psychoanalysis, he sought to find his promised land. With this cocktail of ideas Leonard "Gong" Howell returned to Jamaica and founded Pinnacle, the first Rasta community in 1939.



By recreating a backdrop of that time from film archives, police reports and newspaper articles, we follow in the wake of this adventurer and track the evolution of his thinking. Through direct witnesses we trace his evolution, from his return home in 1932 to the first manifestations of his movement. For the first time, these centenarian survivors describe a Rasta movement that is very different from the usual clichéd images. Their interviews, sparkling with humor and common sense, outline not only the silhouette of a great leader, but the daily struggle of a handful of men and women who stand without fear in the face of an all-powerful global system. An example of incredible moral courage at a time when black people in America and Africa were still considered to be sub-human and were subjected to forced labor and racial discrimination. They paid the price for this bold stand through relentless persecution and through systematic misinformation bent on making them look crazy - but this film sheds another light on their reality.

The film will receive its New York theatrical release in December 2011.


For more information about "The First Rasta", please contact ArtMattan Films.

African Diaspora Film Festival | 535 Cathedral Parkway, Suite 14B | New York | NY | 10025