A British film released in 1980 entitled “Babylon,” which followed Jamaicans enjoying reggae music, parties, and sound systems in the United Kingdom, was given an “X” rating in London and banned in the United States as “too controversial.”

As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20 vision. In the case of Babylon (1980) which is now – four decades after its first screening – acknowledged as a certifiable classic, the adage applies. After its release in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, and a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival the following year, Babylon did not enjoy a theatrical release in the US – until March 2019.

Thematically relevant, considering this year’s spotlight on the Windrush generation, Cinema Paradise 2019 will mount its bridge between film-makers from then and now, from the United Kingdom and Jamaica. The three-day film festival will open on Friday, November 1, in celebratory fashion with a screening of diaspora classic Babylon (1981). Customary to the festival’s dedication to community development and engagement, Babylon will be screened at The Ambassador Theatre in Trench Town and will invite conversation from cast and crew.

The weekend of Friday, November 1, to Sunday, November 3 promises to be a paradisal one as Cinema Paradise Portie Film Festival 2019 projects from screens in the throbbing city of Kingston and the verdant parish of Portland. It will be three exquisite nights in the birthplace of reggae and the (Port) land of films.

The screen will drop at the historic Ambassador Theatre (aka ‘The Bass’) in the heart of Trench Town on Friday, November 1. On it, Babylon, regarded as one of the best reggae films ever made, will open the festival, now in its ninth year.

It’s a new month, and with that, some retrospection. Each month, hundreds of home video releases hit the streets, and who better to curate the best of the best than us here at the CriterionCast. So with that, here are the five best home video releases of August 2019, as per yours truly:

Greg de Cuir Jr. talks to Hyperallergic about curating a retrospective of Black film for the 2019 Locarno Film Festival.

Perry Henzell’s outlaw film, with one of cinema’s most infectious scores, is back on the big screen in New York. …“The Harder They Come” provided a model for later movies, most notably the 1980 British film “Babylon,” which belatedly opened in New York this spring and itself became a cult film.

Babylon is many things: a movie, a time capsule, a wholly unique experience. That isn’t to say that the film has subjects that have never been explored in other projects, nor is it the only film of its attitude and tenacity to come out of that era of British filmmaking, shaking its fist at systemic cancers.

Retrospectives are always one of the highlights of Locarno Film Festival, and this year it rendered homage to black cinema, with works ranging from Africa to Afro-American, -Brazilian, -British and -French works.

Kino Lorber has announced the Aug. 20 Blu-ray and DVD release of Babylon, about a young reggae deejay in Margaret Thatcher-era Great Britain who pursues his musical ambitions, battling against the racism and xenophobia of employers, neighbors, police and the National Front.