Another documentary to record and celebrate the evolution of reggae music is on the way. This, the latest of such projects chronicling the history of the music, is called The Top 20 Greatest Moments in Reggae. And it is being undertaken by Earthstrong Production, Aranthes Lewin and Trinidadian Jeanille Bonterre, better known as Empress Jeanille, formerly MTV Reggae Tempo.

Veteran tour organiser/manager, Copeland Forbes, one of the individuals in the local music fraternity with whom Jeanille Bonterre consulted, caught showing off his musical scrapbook. (Photos: Joseph Wellington)

The documentary, being directed by Bonterre, will be premiered in September, if everything goes according to plan, on Black Entertainment Television (BET) Network 5, Channel BET J. The project began in Jamaica on Monday, at Stony Hill, upper St Andrew, where Splash caught up with Jeanille.

Born and raised in the twin island republic of Trinidad and Tobago, she has been a popular face and voice of her native islands broadcasting industry for many years. Her media career began as a teenager hosting the youth show, Network. She later hosted a daily radio programme on FM100, before moving to Los Angeles, California to pursue a degree in communication at the Santa Monica College.

She is also a distinguished graduate of Ryerson University in Canada where, she became the entertainment news writer for the local radio station, Ebony FM - that paved the way for a position as the entertainment correspondent for CCN TV6, and eventual host for the best selling DVD series, Inside Carnival.

Up until recently, Jeanille Bonterre held pride of place on MTV Reggae Tempo, the channel of the American cable TV giant dedicated to the viewers of the Caribbean. Her passion to promote and develop Caribbean culture has now brought her to the present project, The Top 20 Greatest Moments In Reggae.

"My business partner Aranthes Lewin and I have been conceptualising in various ways of bringing the Caribbean Music scene into the forefront on the international mainstream level," Jeanille told Splash.

"And reggae is a big part of who we are as young Caribbean people," the vivacious Rastafarian Empress added. "The company is called Earthstrong Production and my partner Aranthes came to me one day and he said, 'you know what, all these countdown shows we keep seeing, how come no one ever talk about reggae?' I said, 'you know what, you are right.... we need to show them that we can have greatest moments and greatest icons. And greatest anything when it comes to the Caribbean through our music. And reggae of course is the number one choice', she further explained.

She said that there are over 40 individuals from the fraternity of reggae music - both on and behind the scene with whom she has been speaking as far as the consultancy aspect of it goes, making sure that the right historical information and chronology are provided. Among the local personalities from whom she has been sourcing information, are the riddim-twins, Sly and Robbie; veteran tour organiser/manager, Copeland Forbes; founder of International Reggae Day (IRD), Andrea Davis; and Tommy Cowan. She said that a lot of the pioneers based in New York will be featured in the documentary, one of whom is Burning Spear.

"Today is actually our first shoot, our first production day for the project. We just wanted to get ourselves acquainted with the content. Andrea Davis has been extremely helpful in consulting with us on our research and out content. And she is right now in the process of connecting us with all the other icons....

"And then of course, there are certain icons of the industry that you cannot leave out, we'll be featuring a lot of the pioneers in New York where our studio is based. And one of them is Burning Spear, who we're looking forward to meet. Also Dahved Levy who represents the Caribbean Diaspora in media in North American and also a couple of international media writers . these are people who come to Jamaica often to support the artistes, to support the local festivals. So we sort of want to show through their eyes as well, the impact and the far reach that reggae has had," Jeanille Bonterre exudes passionately.

"So we hope by the end of September this [documentary] will premier for all of us to see. It will be on BET Network 5, Channel BET J, and of course, BET J, has been at the forefront of Caribbean programming and Caribbean Diaspora programming for the past 10 years," she concluded.

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