Rikki Beadle-Blair: Bashment
Updated: Oct 23
J. J. an aspiring M. C. newly arrived on London's exciting outlaw urban music scene has got the skills, the rhymes and the drive. One problem—not only is J. J. a white boy from the sticks, he's also gay... After a brutal gay bash attack at a reggae dance hall competition, a group of thuggish performers defend their actions as being provoked by the victim. They serve a shockingly light sentence, and as their release date nears, their original public defender rallies with the victims to examine the homophobic song lyrics and ask the question 'Did the music make you do it?'.
Written and directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair. You can watch this film via the following outlets: Amazon Prime Apple TV
ACADEMIC RECOGNITION
'postcolonial criticism, transnational identifications and the hegemonies of dancehall's academic and popular performativities' by Denise Noble, The Feminist Review.
This essay can be accessed below (subscription required): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1057/fr.2008.40 Do check out the trailer for BASHMENT below: