By Tanya Batson, Staff Reporter
Hannah
ON SATURDAY night Barbara Blake-Hannah hosted a screening of her documentary 'Race Rhetoric and Rastafari'.
Before the screening, however, the guests were treated to an episode of 'Top Ten' which featured the top 10 pop African-American (or were they Afro-American back then?) bands of the 1960s. This was hosted by Smokey Robinson and was somewhat interesting.
The night's main feature, however, at least assuming from the title, would be a rigorous documentary on race and Rastafari-anism and how rhetoric comes into play in discussions of either. Sadly, it was more a testament to the fact that one shouldn't assume. The only thing present in the 'documentary' was the rhetoric.
Granted, Ms. Blake-Hannah, at the time being addressed as Makeda Lee, was dressed in full 'empress' regalia and there were a few shots of Rastafarians bathing in the sea and playing the drums, so I guess they too were present. The entire religion, however, was relegated to the periphery. It is tragically ironic, as in engaging in what purported to be a defence of Rastafarianism she relegated them to the margins, robbing them of their voice as the Rastafarian experience as lived by Rastafarians was for the most part excluded.
It is quite possible that their ideas of what a documentary should be were skewed by the powers of Babylon in the form of the Discovery Channel et. al. but 'Race Rhetoric and Rastafari' seemed to fall short of some
people's expectations of what a documentary ought to be. In fact, one young man referred to it as the 'Barbara Blake-Hannah Show'.
While this criticism may seem harsh, it was based on the fact that snippets of information about Barbara Blake-Hannah's achievements were a major feature of the documentary.
One thing, other than shots of Ms. Blake-Hannah, smiling benignly on the persons to whom she spoke, was a lot of rhetoric. In fact, the documentary - if we may be so bold as to continue calling it that - could be renamed 'Rhetoric, Barbara and More Rhetoric'. The major vehicle for said rhetoric was quasi-conversations with persons she was once friends with while she lived in England, which acted as a veneer of disguise for very limited explanations of what Rastafarianism meant, or the nature of race relations in Britain.
In one interview/conversation with Jamaican born actor Anton Phillips, the two discussed whether or not Mr. Phillips would bring his daughters back to Jamaica to raise them. In response Mr. Phillips stated that he would, pointing out that in Jamaica he needn't point out the positives of blackness as his daughters would readily see them. This, of course, ignored the rampant shadism and classism that exists in the society and that even more so back in 1982, when the documentary had been shot.
In defence of the film, however, several members of the audience seemed to agree with what was being said. Of course, the two women who fell asleep shortly after it began and awoke because of the clapping that signalled Ms. Blake-Hannah's appearance on the stage at the end of the film mightn't agree.
Or maybe they would.
