Sam Pollard and Melissa Haizlip, United States, 2018, 115 min.
Feature Documentary • Philadelphia Premiere
From 1968 to 1973, the public-television variety show SOUL!, guided by the enigmatic producer and host Ellis Haizlip, offered an unfiltered, uncompromising celebration of black literature, poetry, music, and politics—voices that had few other options for national exposure, and, as a result, found the program an improbable place to call home. With participants’ recollections and a bevy of great archival clips, Mr. SOUL! captures a critical moment in culture whose impact continues to resonate.
also screening:
Birth of Afrobeat
Opiyo Okeyo, United States, 2017, 7 min.
Short Documentary • Philadelphia Premiere
African music pioneer Fela Kuti once said, 'Without Tony Allen, there would be no Afrobeat”. In this hybrid live-action/animated short, filmmaker Opiyo Okeyo documents drum legend Tony Allen as he recounts his contribution to the birth of Africa's most exported music genre.
