The Maine Jewish Film Festival is hosting the New England Premiere of Awake Zion, a music documentary.
Buy tickets in advance here.
An exploration of the connections between Rasta, Reggae, and Judaism, through one woman’s
beat-laden adventure into the meaning of identity. Jewish influence turns up subtly in
Rastafarian lifestyle and inevitably, in reggae. The film travels from Crown Heights, Brooklyn,
where Caribbean and Jewish cultures share a history of adversity – to Jamaica, the birthplace
of reggae – and ultimately to Israel, where a sizzling reggae scene thrives today. The film’s
“jammin’ spirit of oneness” is a deeply personal examination of what it means to be Jewish,
what it means to be Rasta, and, most importantly, what it means to be “home.”