By Phoebe Hart.
This documentary on the neglected 70s funk band consisting of West Indian Londoners is beautifully shot and edited, with an infectious energy….”
Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande charts the comeback of influential funksters, Cymande. The band were a seminal influence on generations of musical artists and are only now beginning to garner the full recognition they deserve.
Directed by Tim Mackenzie-Smith, Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande follows a rags-to-riches-to-rags storyline reminiscent of 2012 documentary Searching for Sugarman. In that film, Rodriguez, a legendary musician wildly popular in certain parts of the globe seemed to vanish into thin air only to reemerge decades later. Similarly, Cymande have long remained out of sight.
Through careful use of archival material, we learn the West Indian Londoners were subject to a sinister level of racism in the UK, which prevented the genre pioneers from making it big in their heyday. In the meantime, acts such as De La Soul and the Fugees began sampling their driving break beats and brought their tunes to the attention of new listeners.
As the film mixes quotes from well-known figures from the worlds of disco, hip-hop, house and electronic dance music alongside live performances, one begins to realise the pure genius of this self-taught group who blended styles and made three ageless albums in the 1970s.
If there’s a complaint, it’s that the celebrities in Mackenzie-Smith’s film get centre stage, and we don’t ever come to know the charismatic members of the band properly. What happened to Steve Scipio, Patrick Patterson, Sam Kelly, Pablo Gonsales and others in the intervening years of relative obscurity, and how have they changed from the young men they used to be?
There is a strong theme of “time will tell” running throughout Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande. The documentary premiered at SXSW in 2020, but only now seems to be coming out in theatres. While the market is awash with rock docs, this one is beautifully shot and edited and has an infectious energy – it will no doubt be a favourite with fans young and old for years to come.
Phoebe Hart is an academic and documentary filmmaker based on unceded Yugara and Turrbal land in Brisbane, Australia. Her latest book on global documentary making practices is available now.
Read the introductory chapter here.