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Dread Beat and Blood 12 rating

Vibrant documentary portrait of dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson, fighting racism with the spoken word on the streets of 1970s Brixton.

Biopic 1979 44 mins

Director: Franco Rosso

CC

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.

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