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BAM BAM: THE STORY OF SISTER NANCY

By Alison DUKE

Art - Culture - Development 2021

‘What if at the age of 20 you recorded the most sampled reggae vocal and didn’t know? ‘Bam Bam: The Story of Sister Nancy’ is a classic music doc that explores the wild ride behind the making and prolific exploitation of the world’s most popular reggae anthem.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Art - Culture, Documentary
- Countries
- CANADA
- Languages
- ENGLISH-CANADA
- Budget
- 1 - 3 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Alison DUKE
- Producer(s)
- Alison DUKE (OYA MEDIA GROUP), Ngardy CONTEH GEORGE (Oya Media Group)
- Synopsis
- ‘Bam Bam:The Story of Sister Nancy’ is a feature documentary that explores in great detail the wild story behind the making of this melodic reggae anthem, the reasons behind the song’s meteoric rise to prominence and her tumultuous fight to get back her royalties and ownership of her hit song after 30 years of deception. Recorded in 1982 it will have its 40th anniversary in 2022, but to this day, very few people know the story behind the recording of the song, the story about her challenges in the industry, what she looks like or whether or not she is even alive.
  
  The structure of the film interweaves her humble beginnings to embarking on a six city women’s empowerment music tour that includes, Toronto, Kingston, Bronx, Nottinghill, Johannesburg and Addis Ababa. She's going on tour with musicians she played with in her past, and will have special moments with other recording artists and dancehall deejays from back in the day, music journalists and radio disk jockeys, who have interviewed her and record industry insiders who know her story. Through them, we discover how and why the song became so popular but also we reveal why Sister Nancy was oblivious to the fact that her producer wasn’t paying her share of royalties - despite Bam Bam! becoming the most sampled Reggae vocal in the world.
  
  Nancy eventually found out about the deception after hearing her voice on a television commercial. Unfortunately, by then, her old manager had already died under extremely suspicious circumstances and Nancy was left to contend with his children, the new estate owners. His children, having been made aware of the duplicitous nature of their father’s business practices, agreed to give Nancy a portion of what their father had stolen, fearing legal action or even worse, that they too would meet their late father’s fate. The estate also agreed to equally split all royalties going forward. As soon as the ink on the new deal dries, Sister Nancy decides to quit her job as a banking accountant and go on tour. With the help of her Canadian manager of 12 years/DJ Moss Raxlen and a slew of A-list pop and reggae celebrities who believe in her message, she mentors the next generation of conscious artists who are making good music while on tour. A producer is also shopping around her second album which will hopefully break her into the mainstream and give her that recognition that she desires. But only time will tell if that will really happen.
  
  The documentary will be told through interviews, current day studio sessions, tour footage, archival footage of Nancy as well as the Jamaican , Torontian and UK reggae scenes back in the day, re-creations of Nancy as a young musician and conversations with young artists from around the world. Ultimately this is an inspirational music documentary about a woman, dusting herself off after being held back by an industry known for silencing and abusing female artists, and hell-bent on empowering others with her music and knowledge in