DON LETTS

BFI Future Film is celebrating 40 years of Punk with a ‘Punk Season’, a month of filmmaking activities, screening recommendations, discussions, and events. Introduced by THE Don Letts, DJ, musician and filmmaker, this month is due to be busy one for the lovers of film and subculture .

Don Letts is sort of a big deal, he’s worked with so many reggae and punk icons of the 70’s through noughties that he’s himself is an icon, if not through his ridiculously good taste and talent then through association alone. Don did what no one could before him, he introduced a whole generation of London’s punk scene to reggae music.

Don was born in Brixton in the late 50’s to Jamaican parents. A first-generation Black British kid, before it so easily rolled off the tongue. London in the 70’s for the black youth was a confusing time and Letts admits he never really considered himself British until the 80’s. He grew up listening to reggae in his family home but couldn’t avoid what was happening in the streets was it and spreading like wildfire. Don found himself rebelling against whatever it was that said he had to be solely a reggae kid and looked to his white friends and punk music. It wasn’t long before he noticed that in turn his white friends looked to his culture and reggae music as an act of rebellion. Black or white, the youth were frustrated and wanted to do the opposite of what came before them.

Like, to me, the reggae thing and the punk thing…its the same fuckin’ thing. Just the black version and the white version. The kids are singing about change, they wanna do away with the establishment.

Don Letts, 21, Sniffin’ Glue interview

In 1974 the Acme Attractions boutique popped up in Kings Road, three years later ‘The Roxy’ (London’s first Punk club) followed, Don found himself as the face of both, managing the Kings Road store by day and spinning the decks by night. It wasn’t an act of innovation or genius that caused him to first introduce reggae into a punk playlist, but his personal taste and the lack of punk material available to work with (10 LP’S, 20 singles, over 5 hours DJing – do the math.)

Punk was anarchy, anti-establishment and completely foreign to the generation that came before it. No one was going to write about these kids, so they’d have to do it themselves. This DIY attitude is to thank for the creation of ‘Don Letts the filmmaker’, who decided he was going to do his bit by picking up a camera.

‘The Punk Rock Movie’ was created after Don read about himself in the NME, someone had reported that he was going to create a punk rock movie, so he did. Shot on Super-8mm, it became the only documentary looking at the U.K punk scene and featured; The Sex Pistols, The Clash and many others. The film was premiered at the ICA –the film that they said he was making had been made.