Red, Gold, and Green has become color code for cool. We all know that Bob Marley was a Rasta. Images of Haile Selassie splashed across the backs of hoodies fill festival crowds throughout the world. Reggae symbols have become mainstream pop culture. Where are they from and what do they mean?
“Holding on to Jah” is a heavy, beautiful, and powerful documentary about the origins of Rastafari. It is easily the best of its kind.
The film ties together Marcus Garvey, Haile Selassie, and the historically mystical concepts that color reggae music and the Rastafari movement. The prophet, the king, revelation, and the music, are all explained in a way that reflect their contextual power. The film clues the viewer in on centuries of emotion, pain, and resilience that have made reggae the powerful music we recognize today. I doubt that most who listen to reggae are aware of its history in the depth that is revealed in this film.

Childhood friends Roger Landon Hall and Harrison Stafford (Groundation) have worked for 15 years to bring this to the masses. San Diego reggae band, Tribal Seeds is even listed as a contributor. Any fan of reggae should take the time to watch it.

Pay attention and have some patience. 400 years is covered in just under 90 minutes.

The story is told by members of the Jamaican Rasta community. It has the authentic feel of a sit-down. An important telling of an international history over several generations, and how that story has influenced the music we surround ourselves with today. There is no Ken Burns white man authority figure chiming in to narrate. This is the new textbook for a history that has been left out of the classrooms, told by the world’s leading experts who have lived and documented it personally.

In between interviews and beautiful Jamaican landscape shots, the film is pieced together by classic reggae tunes that have in fact provided an oral history to the world over the past fifty years in the form of popular rhythms and melodies.

As Roger Steffens puts it in the film “The most ancient of esoteric beliefs spread through modern pop music.” This film reflects the power of that anomaly.

This is a must watch for anyone who has ever enjoyed reggae music, wants in on a uniquely peaceful and anti establishment culture, as well as an understanding of the complex history colonialism and its effects have had on a country such as Jamaica, and ultimately ourselves and the world: Politically, socially, and spiritually.

http://www.holdingontojah.com/