Africa Unite: A Celebration of Bob Marley’s Vision is a film with a very surprising and insightful message. It’s all about how Africa should, er, unite. Secondarily, it is a concert film about the Marley family’s voyage to Ethiopia in 2005. For a total of twelve hours, the family led a musical celebration about the late Bob’s dream for the continent. Though their musical talent is undeniable, director Stephanie Black fails to do them justice in her well-intentioned but flawed depiction of struggles past and present in Africa.
Firstly, I must declaim that I have had little to do with Bob Marley’s music until now. As familiar as all the songs performed in the film sounded, I was still awed by their intoxicating rhythm and charming sincerity. The first and last few minutes of the documentary are devoted to the performances of the Marley family and those who join them on stage, but the entire film is underscored by the beats and lyrics of Bob Marley’s music. If nothing else, Black forced me to cherish every moment the concert was actually shown on screen by largely relegating it to the background. There are few moments more captivating than watching the performers’ brilliance and passion.
Where the film missteps is in the time spent off-stage, as is the case with most concert films and musical biopics. I hesitate to blame the Marleys or any of the activists portrayed for the simplicity of their message, since I am quite certain they have much more to say than “Africa unite”. Sadly, Black assumes that all the information we can handle is contained in that two-word chant. She also assumes that since she was so fortunate to obtain the valuable concert footage, we will be won over by the power of the music and won’t really care about Bob Marley’s specific vision for the continent. In doing so, she leaves us wanting both more music and more insight.
Even in handling the archival material and her access to the concert, she is unable to visually communicate the inspirational message of those depicted. For one, the film is shot almost entirely in a cinema verité, overly-gritty style. This technique works for a lot of films, particularly those of Paul Greengrass. However, in this case, the only impression is that the filmmakers are simply trying too hard to be real, uncompromising, and genuine. It reminds me a lot of the way Ben Affleck as director of
Gone Baby Gone came off as an outsider because he so excessively tried to portray Boston as a rough town.
Another part of the problem here is that Black disobeys the ‘show don’t tell’ guideline, which is particularly important for documentary filmmaking. In one instance, she shows a group of young Africans walking down a path overlaid by the text ‘African student delegates begin three day dialogue sessions’. First of all, I’m not really sure why that is important to the audience, since she never really shows us what they are trying to accomplish or how they are attempting to carry out Bob Marley’s vision. Secondly, wouldn’t it be doubly effective to get rid of the title card and spend an extra fifteen seconds showing their ‘dialogue sessions’ so we have some idea what they are talking about? Such is the way much of the film is constructed, beyond the concert footage of course. Everything from clips of Danny Glover speaking about the need for a united Africa to archival footage of famous speeches in the continent’s history feels disingenuous, overly simplified, and insincere.
While I respect the effort of Black and the other filmmakers involved, I wish they would have put their access to this historic event to better use with a more comprehensive look at the vision and passion of Bob Marley.