Without Lee Perry, there would be no dub, the deconstructive production technique that laid the foundation for techno, hip-hop, remixing and the use of the recording studio as an instrument. The records that Perry produced at his Black Ark studio for Bob Marley, Max Romeo, The Heptones and many others sound as fresh and modern today as they did 40 years ago. A documentary that digs into Perry’s music, the genesis of his studio technique and the creation of his amazing house band, The Upsetters, would be a revelation, but director Volker Schaner’s film barely touches on those subjects. Instead, Schaner and his camera follow Perry around on his day-to-day business, lobbing softball questions his way and recording his endless, oblique and often incomprehensible answers. Schaner’s infatuation with Perry’s genius gets in the way of the film’s narrative structure—what there is of it. Instead, we see close-ups that go on too long, listening to Perry’s shamanistic musings—a confluence of biblical, mystical and Rastafarian prophecies and revelations. The film opens with an interviewer asking Perry if he’s crazy. His long, poetic answer does have a taste of madness but, as the film unspools, it becomes clear that Perry’s word salad may be just as much performance art as it is anything else. His state of mind is just one more question that Schaner’s worshipful film never answers.