The 2013 We Beat Fes­ti­val will close on a lov­ing note with the screen­ing of the award-win­ning doc­u­men­tary, The Sto­ry of Lover's Rock. The film is be­ing shown as part of T&T Film Nights, which is spon­sored by the T&T Film Com­pa­ny, and will be the clos­ing event for the Fes­ti­val on June 16.

The Sto­ry of Lover's Rock is di­rect­ed by Mene­lik Shabazz, a black-British film­mak­er orig­i­nal­ly from Bar­ba­dos. It is a light-heart­ed doc­u­men­tary (with a se­ri­ous un­der­bel­ly) that tells the sto­ry of how lover's rock, the ro­man­tic, vo­cal-led, reg­gae sub-genre, en­tire­ly British in ori­gin, de­fined a gen­er­a­tion in the late 70s and 80s and huge­ly im­pact­ed British pop cul­ture.

A gen­er­a­tion of black British young peo­ple of the Caribbean di­as­po­ra who were grow­ing up in Britain in the 1970s and 80's and fac­ing an of­ten hos­tile en­vi­ron­ment–at school, from the po­lice and oth­er au­thor­i­ty fig­ures– craft­ed and sought so­lace in a genre of reg­gae mu­sic that would be­come in­ter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised and known as lovers' rock.

Un­able to share their iso­la­tion and frus­tra­tion with their par­ents, they turned to each oth­er. Still in their teens or ear­ly 20s, the mu­sic they cre­at­ed spoke to their long­ing for in­ti­ma­cy and ac­cep­tance. It helped them forge a close bond with each oth­er, a bond that was played out on the dance floors of par­ties held in near pitch-black, smoke-filled rooms. The threat of neigh­bours call­ing the po­lice to break things up, of­ten an un­spo­ken threat, hung in the air.

Lover's rock is cit­ed as an in­flu­ence on British pop acts such as the Po­lice, Cul­ture Club and Lily Allen, as well as Ja­maican reg­gae artists such as Gre­go­ry Isaacs, Fred­die Mc­Gre­gor, Sug­ar Minot and Den­nis Brown. Amy Wine­house al­so claimed to have been in­flu­enced by Louisa Mark, one of the top lover's rock artists of the time.

A re­lease from the T&T Film Fes­ti­val said the screen­ing which takes place from 7pm at the St James Am­phithe­atre in as­so­ci­a­tion with the St James Com­mu­ni­ty Im­prove­ment Com­mit­tee, is free of charge, for all ages and open to the pub­lic.

Doors open at 6pm and there will be re­fresh­ments on sale.

Sched­ule

June 14

We Vin­tage Kaiso: Baron, Stal­in, Scrunter, Ras Kom­man­da, Bal­ly, Ex­plain­er, John­ny King, Pos­er, MC Nik­ki Cros­by

Venue: St James Am­phithe­atre

Time: 8 pm

Ad­mis­sion: $150

June 15

Steel­band Pa­rade: Street Pa­rade of Steel­bands. Mem­bers of the pub­lic are in­vit­ed to join in and jump in your Car­ni­val cos­tume!

Venue: West­ern Main Road

Time: 7 pm - 2 am

Ad­mis­sion: Free

June 16

We­Film Night in col­lab­o­ra­tion with T&T Film Fes­ti­val shows the movie The Sto­ry of Lovers Rock

Venue: St James Am­phithe­atre

Time: 7 pm

Ad­mis­sion: Free