oh my godfather!
James Brown
James Brown rocks ACMI's big screen in this month's Long Play season
While working on Leon Gast's When We Were Kings, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte realised that there "was a whole other movie waiting to be born". As the editor on Gast's Oscar-winning documentary about the epic 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, Levy-Hinte waded through approximately 125 hours of footage, 90 minutes of which went into Gast's work. From what was left emerged Soul Power, a film focusing on the music festival that accompanied one of history's most famous sporting contests.
Dubbed 'Zaire '74', the three-day festival was the brainchild of South African musician Hugh Masekela and American record producer Stewart Levine, who convinced boxing promoter Don King to merge the event with the Ali/Foreman bout.
The concert became an exhilarating statement of black empowerment, bringing together native African musicians and celebrated African-American soul artists (many of whom were visiting Africa for the first time) including B.B. King, Bill Withers and, of course, the 'Godfather of Soul' James Brown.
Before the film's screening at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, Levy-Hinte told the audience to "Feel free to get into it. If you want to sing along, or dance, go right ahead". So go on, get doooown!
Soul Power is screening until Sunday 24 May - click here for details. To give you the full experience, we are also presenting two special screenings of When We Were Kings alongside Soul Power, at 5.45pm on Sunday 10 May and Sunday 17 May.
Published Thursday, 7 May 2009
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