Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's Soul Power, one of my favorite films of last year, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony. It hit shelves last week (26 Jan), and closed out the month of January as one of the first true must-see disc releases of the year. As I said at SXSW last year, it's the undiscovered "killer B side to a doc that many already know and love, When We Were Kings."
Power hit a handful of screens last year, but this is how everyone will find it. Here's some more from my SXSW review:
"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."
I'm going to keep beating the drum on this one, so get it in your rental queue or order it up. The extras on both DVD & Blu are deleted scenes (including some more Muhammad Ali) and a feature commentary with director Levy-Hinte and the Zaire 74 festival producer, Stewart Levine. The Blu has the exclusive movieIQ thing with built-in playlist support, but I couldn't figure out how or why to make it work.
The picture is grainy (welcome to 16mm in the early 70's), but as good as could be expected from the source. The audio is startlingly clear. Amazon is selling the Blu-ray for $22.99 and the DVD for $24.99.