Africa Unite: A Celebration of Bob Marley's 60th Birthday (2008)

Director:

Stephanie Black

Release Date:

2008 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Plot:

A documentary about the family of the late Bob Marley and their first trip to Ethiopia to attend the annual Africa Unite concert. |

Cast

Firoz Hirji Nazisi	...	Herself - Kenya
Marley Mirene	...	Herself - Cameroon
Portia Phalafala	...	Herself - South Africa
Rita Marley	...	Herself
Danny Glover	...	Himself - UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador
Cedella Marley	...	Herself - Bob Marley's Mother
Arkebe Oqubay	...	Himself - Mayor of Addis Ababa
Ras Teddy Dan	...	Himself
Bongo Tawney	...	Himself - Jamaica
Mariamenna Senna Asfa Wosen	...	Herself - Granddaughter of Haile Selassie (as Princess Mariamenna Senna Asfa Wosen)
Jacob Ade-Ajayi	...	Himself - Nigeria (as Professor Jacob Ade-Ajayi)
Dudley Thompson	...	Himself - Jamaica (as Ambassador Dudley Thompson)
King Leopold II	...	Himself - Belgium (archive footage) (as King Leopold)
Bernard Magubane	...	Himself - South Africa (as Professor Bernard Magubane)
Stephen Marley	...	Himself
Jutta Atidiga	...	Himself - Ghana
Kenda McDonald	...	Herself - UNICEF (as Dr. Kenda McDonald)
Mentesenot Ashalew	...	Himself - Ethiopia
Hudaa Juma	...	Herself - Tanzania
Winston Churchill	...	Himself - Tanzania
Kenan Assefa	...	Herself - Ethiopia
Angélique Kidjo	...	Herself (as Angelique Kidjo)
Jimmy	...	Himself - Uganda
Ziggy Marley	...	Himself
Mabutho Shangase	...	Himself - South Africa
Ghonche Materego	...	Himself - Tanzania
Edwinah Orowe	...	Herself - Kenya
Lungile Mzizi	...	Herself - South Africa
Paul Gibson	...	Himself - Malawi
Fatou Suso	...	Herself - The Gambia
Erick Mudibo	...	Himself - Kenya
Teddy Afro	...	Himself
Bob Andy	...	Himself
Hajirah Mungula	...	Herself - Tanzania
Jomo Kenyatta	...	Himself - President of Kenya (archive footage)
Damian Marley	...	Himself
Lauryn Hill	...	Herself
Julius Nyerere	...	Himself - First President of Tanzania (archive footage) (as Julius Mwalimu Nyerere)
Tajudeen Abdulrahim	...	Himself - Nigeria (as Dr. Tajudeen Abdulrahim)
Ky-Mani Marley	...	Himself (as Kymani Marley)
Maxwell Mkwezalamba	...	Himself - African Union Commisioner for Economic Affairs
Congo Rocky	...	Himself
Bob Marley	...	Himself (archive footage)
Erica Newell	...	Herself
Marcia Griffiths	...	Herself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Julian Marley	...	Himself (uncredited)
Sharon Marley Prendergast	...	Herself (uncredited)

Directed by
Stephanie Black

Produced by
Majida Abdi	....	line producer
Joslyn Barnes	....	executive producer
Stephanie Black	....	producer
Danny Glover	....	executive producer
Cedella Marley	....	executive producer
Rita Marley	....	executive producer
Zeresenay Mehari	....	co-line producer (as Zeresenay Zee Mehari)
Ras Bobby Morgan	....	associate producer

Film Editing by
Marian Sears Hunter
Laura Israel

Production Management
Julia King	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jonathan Stack	....	second unit director: Addis

Sound Department
Coll Anderson	....	re-recording mixer
Coll Anderson	....	supervising sound editor
Stephen Barden	....	dialogue editor
David Carbelo	....	sound recordist (as David Curbelo)
Gautam Choudhury	....	sound recordist (as Gautam K. Choudhury)
Dave Curtin	....	sound recordist
Mark Filip	....	sound effects editor
Caleb Mose	....	sound recordist
Matt Snedecor	....	assistant sound editor
Michael Suarez	....	sound technician
Sheldon Turnbull	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Axel Baumann	....	camera operator
John Bentham	....	additional camera
Chris Brown	....	camera operator
Wondwossen Deress	....	camera assistant
Arthur Jafa	....	cinematographer
Sean John	....	cinematographer
Kyle Kibbe	....	cinematographer
Nathan Liebold	....	assistant video technician
Bradley Martin	....	camera assistant
Asha Mchail	....	cinematographer
Daniel Missabiliss	....	camera assistant
David Mulugeta	....	camera assistant
Sintayehu Nigusse	....	camera assistant
Al Pollard	....	camera assistant
Malik Hassan Sayeed	....	cinematographer
Jonathan Stack	....	additional camera
Carla Swanson	....	cinematographer
Huluyante Tsegay	....	additional camera

Editorial Department
Ruthie Aslan	....	additional assistant editor
Orlando Conde Barros	....	post-production coordinator
Alex Bingham	....	additional editor
John Dowdell	....	digital intermediate colorist (as John J. Dowdell III)
Aaron Ekroth	....	additional assistant editor
Molly Fink	....	additional assistant editor
Lloyd Forcellini	....	digital intermediate finishing artist
Peter Heady	....	digital intermediate finishing artist
Margo Hyde	....	additional assistant editor
Jean Lane	....	digital intermediate producer
Zack Linowitz	....	additional assistant editor
Christina Mar	....	additional assistant editor
Amilcar Navarro	....	additional assistant editor
Paulo Padilha	....	additional assistant editor
Orlando Richards	....	additional assistant editor
Tim Spitzer	....	digital intermediate supervisor
Mike Trinker	....	digital intermediate finishing artist

Music Department
Errol Brown	....	mixer: 'Africa Unite' concert
James 'Bonzai' Caruso	....	recordist: 'Africa Unite' concert
Barry Cole	....	music clearance

Other crew
Lily Adu	....	archival footage researcher
Agnes NaDene Baddoo	....	archival footage researcher (as Agnes Baddoo)
Leslie Bailey	....	production staff: NYC
Betsy Blakemore	....	production staff: NYC
Joanna Chejade-Bloom	....	production staff: NYC
Shari Chertok	....	archival footage researcher
Patrick Crincoli	....	production staff: Addis
Doreen Crujeiris	....	production coordinator: Bob Marley Music (as Doreen Crujeiras)
Nzinga C. Fielder	....	production staff: Addis
Helen	....	production staff: Addis
David Loyal Herbruck	....	titles and graphics: Loyalkaspar (as David Herbruck)
Everton Valentine Hoo	....	archival footage researcher
Desta Meghoo	....	coordinator: 'Africa Unite' Ethiopia
Jeannie Miller	....	production staff: Addis
Julia Morgan	....	production coordinator: Louverture Films
Thor Olsen	....	production staff: Addis
Sarah Orenstein	....	titles and graphics: Loyalkaspar
Josephine Pierre	....	archival footage researcher
Eleanor Wint	....	coordinator: symposium (as Dr. Eleanor Wint)

Thanks
Michael Abdi	....	heartfelt thanks
Chris Blackwell	....	heartfelt thanks
Mahen Bonetti	....	heartfelt thanks
Todd Chandler	....	heartfelt thanks
Julie Dash	....	heartfelt thanks
Andrieas Eschete	....	heartfelt thanks (as Professor Andrieas Eschete)
Jeff Fura	....	heartfelt thanks
Neville Garrick	....	heartfelt thanks
Makeda Garvey	....	heartfelt thanks
Addis Gessesse	....	heartfelt thanks
Indrias Getachew	....	heartfelt thanks
Everton Valentine Hoo	....	heartfelt thanks
Nancy Jeffries	....	heartfelt thanks
Tori Johnson	....	heartfelt thanks
David Kennedy	....	heartfelt thanks
Robert Kenner	....	heartfelt thanks (as Rob Kenner)
Sarah Manley	....	heartfelt thanks
Orly Marley	....	heartfelt thanks
Kerida McDonald	....	heartfelt thanks (as Dr. Kerida McDonald)
Stella Mclaughlin	....	heartfelt thanks
Tom Paul	....	heartfelt thanks
Dave Piperni	....	heartfelt thanks
Samuel D. Pollard	....	heartfelt thanks (as Sam Pollard)
Anne Pope	....	heartfelt thanks
Nick Quested	....	heartfelt thanks
Neal Usatin	....	heartfelt thanks
Feonia Williams	....	heartfelt thanks
Zebalem	....	heartfelt thanks
Zelalem	....	heartfelt thanks (as Zelalem 'DJ Z')

Production Companies

• Louverture Films
• Tuff Gong Pictures

Distributors

• Palm Pictures (2007) (USA) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• Cayman Music  music publishing
• Goldcrest Post Production New York  post-production facilities

Also Known As:

Runtime:

Germany:92 min (European Film Market)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DVD)

Filming Locations:

Ethiopia

Company:

Louverture Films

Soundtrack:

Blackman Redemption

Not much more than a celebrity travelogue...

This film is a strange confab of celebrity travel souvenir and retrospective of the Rastafarian movement on the occasion of Bob Marley's 60th birthday.

Much of the surviving Marley clan is featured here — Ziggy, Rita, Cedelia, Damian and Julian — there's music and interviews. And more interviews — interviews with lots of people who just happened to show up for Bob's birthday celebration down in Ethiopia. There's Danny Glover, Angelique Kidjo, Lauren Hill and others but the participants here seem to be fighting over Marley's legacy as much as celebrating it.

But the title of the film is 'Africa Unite' and NOT 'A Posthumous Celebration of Bob Marley's 60th Birthday'. Though the film doesn't come together as a cohesive narrative or a document of an important event, it does feature a few good, informative moments for people unfamiliar with Marley and/or the Rastafarian movement.

Notably, Haile Selassie's 1963 address to the U.N. and the pan-African movement are addressed after the 2nd half-hour, the same speech that Marley put to music and recorded as the song "War".

But the relationship of these celebrities and the search for human rights, cultural development and education get somewhat muddled as the filmmakers wander back and forth from hotel conference-rooms to the streets of Addis Ababa apparently seeking some sort of grilled-cheese manifestation of the departed musician. There's plenty of archival footage and information about Haile Selassie, but those who are really interested in the subculture and Marley's impact might do better to see Jeremy Marre's 'Rebel Music' (2001), Awake Zion (2005), The Promised Ship (2000) or any of the many Wailers concert videos.