In The Story of Lover's Rock, the legendary filmmaker Menelik Shabazz returns to London to tell the story of a defining musical genre. This essay documentary tells the story of how Lovers Rock music defined a generation in the late 1970s and 1980s, hugely impacting on British Pop Culture.

His early TV films Burning An Illusion (1981) and Time and Judgement (1988) are seen as a breakthrough for black British cinema, with Shabazz’s tactile and essayistic style bringing together sharp composition and archival rummaging into a complete cinematic package. From food to fashion to resisting the politics of Thatcher’s Britain, The Story of Lover's Rock shows how music does what it does best: bring people together.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with director Menelik Shabazz by film programmer and writer Rōgan Graham