Words by DJ Gravy and Jesse Serwer, via BBC World Service

A friend of LargeUp has been telling us about his old friend, Esther Anderson, the Jamaican beauty queen and actress who, in a short span of time in the early 70′s, worked with Bob Marley, Chris Blackwell and starred alongside Sidney Poitier in the movie, A Warm December. This past weekend in London, Anderson (who took the famous photo of Marley smoking a spliff that’s appeared on posters, T-shirts and versions of Catch A Fire) premiered scenes from Bob Marley – The Making of a Legend, a film, still-in-progress, she is making from lost footage shot of Bob Marley and the Wailers for Island Records in the early ’70s. Anderson, who became romantically involved with Marley at the time, recalls her first meeting with him in her interview with Ron Bhola of BBC World Service: “He didn’t smile but he was very handsome with strong features, he reminded me of Jimi Hendrix,” she remembers.

Much of the footage was recorded at Island House, then Island Records’ office, at 56 Hope Road, Kingston, Jamaica—now home to the Bob Marley Museum. The recordings were presumed lost until 2000, when a British documentarian who came to interview Anderson realized he had come into possession of them. For more on Anderson and her work-in-progress, stay tuned or follow her on Twitter.