- Watch on BFI Player or own it on Blu-ray from 26 February
Cymande are the greatest band you’ve likely never heard of, and this is their incredible untold story. Formed in south London by musicians who came to the UK from the Caribbean as part of the Windrush generation and led by Patrick Patterson (guitar) and Steve Scipio (bass), they combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to create a new sound.
Despite finding success in the US with their first three brilliant albums they faced indifference through prejudice at home, became disillusioned and disbanded in 1975. But their music lived on as new generations of artists, in the UK and the US discovered, sampled and reworked their pioneering sounds, taking their music to new audiences.
Illustrated with archival footage, the story of these unsung heroes is told on screen through new interviews with the original band members filmed over two years.
Credits
UK 2022
90 mins
Director Tim Mackenzie-Smith
With Cymande, Norman Jay, DJ Maseo, Mark Ronson Jazzie B, Khruangbin, Loyle Carner, DJ Maseo of De La Soul, Jim James, Louie Vega and more
Special event
21 February
Screening + Q&A at West Norwood Picturehouse
Venues
February
16 February
BFI Southbank
Bertha DocHouse (Bloomsbury)
Brixton Ritzy
Curzon Camden
Ealing Picturehouse
FACT
Hackney Picturehouse
HOME
Picturehouse Central
W.Norwood Picturehouse
17 February
Garden Cinema
18 February
Genesis, London (Screening, Q&A and Party)
23 February
King St Cinema
27 February
Light Cinema Addlestone
Light Cinema Banbury
Light Cinema Bolton
Light Cinema Bradford
Light Cinema Cambridge
Light Cinema New Brighton
Light Cinema Redhill
Light Cinema Sheffield
Light Cinema Sittingbourne
Light Cinema Stockport
Light Cinema Thetford
Light Cinema Walsall
Light Cinema Wisbech
March
1 March
Tyneside Newcastle
DCA Dundee
2 March
Riverside Studio
16 March
MK Gallery
22 March
Magic Lantern
Firstside Colchester
April
27 April
Curzon Community Cinema Clevedon