BelDUB Documentary 2015

© 2015 Andreas Peeters & Gieljan Van Goethem
Producer & director: Andreas Peeters
Interviews: Andreas Peeters
Camera & editing: Gieljan Van Goethem
Audio: Rinus De Wilde
Animation: Jojanne Hopmans

BelDUB is a film about singers & players, about vocals & versions, about screaming sirens and roaring amplifiers - about the many faces of reggae in Belgium. The makers made their way through lead-heavy basses and reverberating echoes and, en passant, looked deep into the eyes of dub, the darkest face of reggae. Among towers of speakers, they found an instrument that makes walls shake, brings people together and heals their souls: the sound system.
BelDUB tells the story of a music scene on the margins from its pioneering years to today, and gives a voice to DJs, producers and musicians for whom reggae became their gospel.

Over the past fifteen years, reggae has experienced an unprecedented revival in Belgium. Never before has the music received so much positive attention and attracted so many young people. A new generation is returning to the old values of roots reggae and all over the country audiophiles with a great love for vinyl and analogue equipment are putting together their own sound systems.
Old records are brought back to life with flawless sound. BelDUB also shows the story that preceded this: the first importers of reggae in Belgium, the first reggae DJs and the first sound systems. In the early 1980s, Antwerp in particular played a crucial role in spreading the genre, through free radios, record shops, gigs at Hof ter Lo and the first editions of the Reggae Geel festival.
But there is more: several home-grown live bands see the light of day, record labels and studios are created. Through collaborations with authentic musicians from Jamaica and the UK, this young generation succeeds in making the music their own. Slowly, reggae also became 'our' music: Belgian reggae musicians are no longer inferior to their Jamaican examples.

About the cast
DJs, producers and musicians past and present are featured extensively; King Flashman, Crucial P, Professor Cat, Asham Band, Pura Vida, Crucial Alphonso, Unlisted Fanatic, Soul Remedy and Jahmbassador Hi-Fi. Belgian anecdotes play out against the backdrop of an international story about the history of soundsystem culture. Big international names such as Channel One, Jah Voice, Ras Muffet, Nomadix and Russ Disciples also have their say in BelDUB.