Green Island -

(North American rights only)

Before there was reggae, folk songs told the stories of love, poverty and suffering in the green island of Jamaica. Harry Belafonte ushered these into the mainstream in the ‘50s and ‘60s, his album Calypso becoming the first million-selling LP by a single artist in1956. But there was another sound on the horizon, in the shanty towns of Kingston, an original fusion of Caribbean music, jazz, and rhythm and blues, and it was called Ska. This was the foundation for the music of Bob Marley, and the genius behind it? A trombone player named DON DRUMMOND. Green Island not only tells the story of Don’s rise as the Father of Ska, but also the great love between Don and MARGARITA MAHFOOD, a brilliant dancer known as the The Queen of Rhumba and the Josephine Baker of the West Indies. It is their love and genius that birth the new sound of a liberated Jamaica, even as darker forces threaten to tear them apart. Don is brilliant, yet overlooked, soulful yet brash, poor yet rich in music. Because he is utterly original and ahead of his time, he is plagued by rejection and disinterest. He yearns for validation but seeks for it in all the wrong places. Perhaps this is why a shadowy figure begins to appear in his life at moments of paranoia or despair. Don fears this DARK STRANGER who stalks him like a nebulous fate he cannot escape. In spite of this looming presence, Don believes he can carve out his own destiny. When he first lays eyes on Margarita, he is spellbound. Though the attraction is mutual, Margarita remains loyal to her husband RUDOLPH BENT, a domineering boxer. She befriends Don and introduces him to COUNT OSSIE, a Rastafarian musician who lives on the edge of society. Don weaves Ossie’s intoxicating nyabinghi drumming into his songs. In 1959, Don creates a band who attracts rising producer COXSONE DODD. Dodd hires Don to write Jamaican-sounding arrangements of popular American songs and takes on his band as session players. Don reluctantly does the job, hoping it will open doors to his own music, but as time goes by and only Dodd gets richer, Don threatens to quit unless Dodd backs his music. Their resulting debut album, the Don Drummond All-Stars, is an instant hit. Don’s fusion music captures the spirit of Jamaica as it nears independence after three hundred years of colonization. When he and Margarita bring Count Ossie and his drummers on stage in Kingston, it’s an historical moment, breaking down social barriers and wakingup a nation. As Don’s records are being played all over Jamaica, and Hollywood starts to call, Don’s dark fate intervenes; his visa is rejected because he has been seeing a psychiatrist at Kingston’s Public Hospital. After his band abandons him for America, the Dark Stranger stalks Don at every turn. We discover that these visions are just that — visions. Where we see a guy selling ice cream or a security guard, Don sees the threatening figure. Not to be undone, Don starts another band, this time foregrounding walking baselines and off-beat rhythms, blending mento, calypso, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Their debut album as the newly-formed SKATELITES takes the nation by storm. A new sound is born. For the first time in his life, Don experiences real success. And it is at this moment that Margarita leaves Rudolph after a bloody domestic fight and moves in with Don, changing his life forever. Don’s music and his love for Margarita come together in perfect balance during this period of domestic bliss. Don and Margarita are equals creatively and sexually. They collaborate on a new song — their love song — to great success. But this happy, integrated period is fleeting, for when the Dark Stranger resurfaces, it is stronger than ever. As Margarita’s star rises, Don’s grip on reality rapidly declines, culminating in one fateful night when Don’s schizophrenia claims everything he holds dear.