In the middle of a Thursday afternoon last week, in a half-empty Paramount Theater, I saw one of the most important films to have screened at SXSW09. Soul Power is the killer B side to a doc that many already know and love, When We Were Kings. Directed by Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, one of Kings' editors, Soul Power concerns itself with the three-day music festival that happened concurrent to the Ali-Foreman Rumble in the Jungle.
James Brown bringing the house down in Zaire, 1974
Interspersed throughout the film are full single song performances by James Brown (the centerpiece of the festival), B.B. King, Bill Withers, Miriam Makemba, Celia Cruz & The Fania All-stars, and others. There's also a healthy amount of Ali spouting philosophy and observations that still ring true 35 years later.
The most significant find of the film, for me, is what I consider the most stirring Bill Withers performance put to film. Most people know him for other songs, but Levy-Hinte chose "Hope She'll Be Happy" out of the hour-long set Withers played. It's only a couple minutes long, but of all the sequences in the film, it left the greatest impression on me. The raw, cathartic wail in Withers' voice really drove home how completely free of emotion or talent most modern music is. Singers used to really pour themselves into it, not just twist the corner of their mouth because it'd look good on American Idol.
Bill Withers performing "Hope She'll Be Happy" at the Zaire '74 music festival
The film plays fine on its own, but truly is best paired with a recent viewing of When We Were Kings. I watched Kings in the middle of the night before, and this is more than just cutting room, deleted scenes stuff. You're missing a significant part of the history of this event without Soul Power.
If I was left wanting in any way, it's that I want to be able to see the full twelve-hour concert. I want to be able to listen to it on my iPod. The footage is available and the sound masters are all multi-track. With today's technology, the music sounded phenomenal in the film, and Levy-Hinte promised us it was possible with the rest of the material.
If there were ever a justification for taking a payday loan to buy Blu-rays of something, it would be a box set of that. The Zaire '74 concert with lossless, 16-track audio in 7.1 Digital Surround would move plenty of hardware and software. There's a fortune to be made selling high quality digital tracks of all that music on its own.
Soul Power director Zachary Levy-Hinte
At the Q&A after the film, I asked the director when or if this was planned, and he said that he hadn't gotten any interest from anyone yet. He has access and rights secured for all the masters, film and audio. This is absolutely insane. I'll start a fundraising effort, write letters, make people un-follow me on Twitter by spamming people with direct messages.
Sony Pictures Classics will release Soul Power in late July in a handful of theaters and then presumably on DVD and Blu-ray. This deserves to be seen on more than just "a handful" of screens, so hopefully film societies and festivals will stage their own screenings across the country.