Unseen Bob Marley Footage in New Documentary

A new film entitled Bob Marley: The Making of a Legend is currently in production featuring lost photographs and footage of Marley filmed in the early Seventies by former Miss World, Esther Anderson.

Miss Anderson first met Marley at an Island Records event in New York, late 1972. The reggae legend was travelling the US and Caribbean with REBEL MUSIC contributor Dickie Jobs and Traffic's Jim Capaldi, promoting the Wailers' first major label album, Catch A Fire. Anderson joined them to take photographs.

On Marley's return to Jamaica, Anderson continued photographing the Wailers as well as recording them with a Super 8 video camera. The material - which includes footage of Bob talking with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer at 56 Hope Road; sitting beneath his favourite mango tree; and helping a fellow motorist change a flat tyre - was originally intended for a promotional film, to be shown in US universities. However, in March 1973 it went missing.

In 2000 another documentary maker asked to interview Anderson for his own film about Marley. Among his archive material Anderson spotted the tapes she had made nearly 30 years previously.

Now, with Gian Godoy, she is finally completing her project and an early preview of the work in progress will be presented at the British Film Institute in London on March 19, 2011. For more information click here.

Left: Bob Marley outside 56 Hope Street © Kate Simon and taken from REBEL MUSIC .