Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Left: Norman Stolzoff, writer/director for 'Louder Than Words' (hands on knees), with cameraman T.J. Martin. Right: Hunter Mann, sound engineer for 'Louder Than Words', during filming in Spanish Town. - CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

EIGHT YEARS after his book on the mechanics of dancehall music became a minor hit in the United States, American anthropologist Norman Stolzoff is digging in to make a film about reggae's outrageous offspring.

Louder Than Words is the title of the movie Stolzoff hopes will be released in early 2009. Last week, he told The Gleaner from his home in Washington state that the project is almost complete. It is a follow-up to his critically acclaimed book, Wake The Town And Tell The People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica.

Wake The Town examined daily life on the dancehall hustings, but this time around, Stolzoff says he zoomed in on the genre's remarkable rise up North American pop charts in the last five years.

"The movie is focused on the current dancehall scene. It uses the past to provide context but it's really about the current runnings," Stolzoff explained.

Two trips to Jamaica

Stolzoff and a crew of seven made two trips to Jamaica for production on Louder Than Words, with filming taking place in Kingston, Spanish Town and Portland. They also taped several dances, as well as Sting, the annual Boxing Day show.

While Wake The Town used The Dub Store at Whitehall Avenue as its theme, Louder Than Words central figure is Garfield 'Ricky Trooper' McKoy, a veteran sound-system selector. Trooper is considered dancehall royalty, having come to prominence in the 1980s with the Kilimanjaro sound system.

The Stolzoff team conducted interviews with Winston 'Merritone' Blake, whose Merritone sound system has been around for over 50 years; singer Tanya Stephens, deejay Beenie Man and drummer Sly Dunbar. All gave their take on the evolution of dancehall.

Stolzoff says he is 'blown away' at how much dancehall music has taken off in the United States since Wake The Town was released in 2000. Albums by Shaggy and Sean Paul have sold mega-platinum, while top hip-hop performers like Alicia Keys have recorded hit songs with Junior Gong and Baby Cham.

That acceptance has not attracted potential investors to Louder Than Words, which Stolzoff says cost US$500,000 to produce. With the film in its editing stage, he says finding a distributor for it has been difficult.

"We thought there would be a lot of interest from the investment community but there hasn't been," Stolzoff said. "That's why it's taken so long for us to get it out because it's been totally self-funded."

Stolzoff has been hooked on reggae since 1982 when he attended a Black Uhuru concert in his native California. A decade later, he decided to write a book on Jamaican dancehall music as part of his studies at Stanford University.

Warts-and-all assessment

After almost 10 years of research (including living in Jamaica for one year), Stolzoff completed Wake The Town, which was hailed by reggae critics as a warts-and-all assessment of Jamaica's underground music scene.

Dancehall's popularity has not only resulted in soaring sales, but influenced several documentaries by North American and European companies.

Stolzoff says his effort goes beyond the glamour and controversy usually associated with the genre.

"We are in the same terrain and looking at the same phenomenon, but based on the research we have done, I don't think they (other films) have the depth that we are trying to offer," he said.

howard.campbell@gleanerjm.com