Word, sound and power : Soul Syndicate Band / Jeremiah Stein and Roth Recording, Inc.

Producer and Sound Editor : Jeff Roth ; Editor : Jeremiah Stein ; Assistant Sound Editor : Sylvan Rodgers.

Word, sound and power is a documentary about the Soul Syndicate, Jamaica's finest group of reggae instrumentalists (they have provided backing for records by Bob Marley and The Wailers, Toots and The Maytals, The Heptones, Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff and many others) and the film is unique in its blend of tension and relaxation, movement between city and the country, in its mix of good talk and good music. It is the closest film audiences are likely to get to modern Jamaican music and to the ideas, experiences and emotions behind that music. The film shifts back and forth between the band as an ensemble, playing in the open air in a Kingston courtyard, and individual members talking telling tales, stating philosophy. Most often the emphasis is on Earl "Chinna" Smith, the groups lead guitarist, talking easily and forcefully with another Jamaican, Dallas Rogers. The music seems to be at peace with the Jamaican landscape-rivers and jungles no less than Kingston slums-and with the Rastafarian faith in a deliverance from "Babylon" that gives so much of the conversation in the film its prophetic edge. Finally though, it is the music that gives that prophecy power-especially the band's final performance of "None shall escape the judgment." The piece is so quietly insistent, so effortlessly but undeniably shaped, so peaceful and so full of dread, that when it ends, some time after the screen has gone dark and the credits are rolling, you no longer fear the judgment, but hope you can share in it.