Africa Unite: A Celebration of Bob Marley's Vision (Palm Pictures, 2008)

Africa Unite documents the Marleys' first trip to Ethiopia as a family -- including matriarch Cedella Booker Marley -- to celebrate Bob's 60th birthday in 2005. As part of the trip, the first family of reggae organized a week of seminars, speeches, and discussions aimed at inspiring a generation of young Africans to bring the nations of that continent together for the betterment of all. Students from 40 African nations came to Addis Ababa for a discourse on issues of poverty, war, AIDS, and education -- as well as, of course, music. The week culminated in an epic 12-hour concert featuring the Marleys and special guests from Africa and Jamaica. Africa Unite deftly blends the social and political rhetoric with concert footage, often cutting to Bob Marley songs that relate directly to the topics being discussed by the participants in the meetings. Producer/director Stephanie Black also smartly includes a brief history lesson on African colonialism -- providing background on the need for unity -- including wonderful archive footage of Ethiopian resistance to Mussolini's advances in the 1930s (Ethiopia was the only African nation uncolonialized by Europe) and emperor Haile Selassie's trips to the frontline and to the United Nations. Although the Bob Marley songs that his family performs on the DVD have been heard many times before, Africa Unite presents them in a refreshing historical context that reminds you of their power to inspire. It's actually the extra footage outside of the concert -- including a tour of Selassie's palace and the touching story of Bongo Tawney, a 70-year-old Jamaican Rastaman who fulfills his dream of travelling to Ethiopia -- that makes this film profound. Don't get me wrong, though; the concert provides a great soundtrack, with performances by Ziggy, Stephen, Damian, the underrated Julian, Ky-Mani, and Rita, as well as Bob Andy, Marcia Griffiths, and African artists Angelique Kidjo and Teddy Afro, all culminating in a rousing, extended performance of "Could You Be Loved" and, of course, "Africa Unite" by the entire Marley clan. Bonus features on the DVD include 11 additional performances from the concert from the Marleys and Angelique Kidjo, plus interviews with Rita and the Marley kids (including the lesser-seen Rohan and Robbie; the Marley daughters get short-changed in the film in general), footage from a second Africa Unite concert in Ghana in 2006 (which probably deserves a DVD of its own), and rare home video footage of Bob performing "Redemption Song" in New York in 1980.