by Graeme Mathieson • Canada, Jamaica, United States Canada • 1hr 21 mins • Documentary • English

Play it Loud! is a feature documentary that tells the remarkable story of how Jamaican music came to Canada as part of a social and cultural migration that had a seismic impact on Canada and helped transform this country into a modern nation and make it a mecca for Jamaican music. We tell this story primarily through the life, music, struggles, and triumphs of Jamaican Canadian singer Jay Douglas. Jay is both a witness and participant in the stories we tell – the 1950’s birth of Jamaican popular music; the early 1960’s Jamaican migration to Canada; the flowering of a uniquely Canadian black music culture that is now celebrated around the world, though still little appreciated here. Through Jay’s personal story, we tell a much bigger and largely untold tale of cultural transformation.