Negus - Lee "Scratch" Perry(2013)

Negus is a documentary film that explores the spiritual and historical intersection between reggae legend Lee "Scratch" Perry and Haile Selassie I. Perry, the Jamaican dub master and Rasta visionary, guides a fiery re-enactment of a pivotal moment from 1930s Italian Fascism: the burning of an effigy depicting Ethiopia's last emperor in the main square of Vernasca, a small village between Milan and Bologna. The film weaves together this act of colonial violence with the rise of Rastafarianism in Jamaica, a movement that crowned Haile Selassie as the Black Messiah and positioned Ethiopia as the spiritual homeland for followers worldwide. Through Perry's lens, the documentary examines how this African emperor became a symbol of resistance and redemption for a global religious and cultural movement born from the Caribbean diaspora.