Soul Power

Soul Power is a sizzling documentary which shows a glimpse of Africa in the early 70s, some of the greatest Afro-American entertainers at a difficult transitional stage in American history, Muhammad Ali, and the hijinks of staging a massive festival in the age of walkie-talkies.

This review is primarily meant to address the pans which dismiss Soul Power for being composed of stock footage, and to correct the assertion that Miriam Makeba is the only African performer to appear.

In the first case, it's NOT stock footage. It's footage that, for whatever reason, was unable to be edited or released within a reasonable period after the event. The footage was certainly shot with the aim of creating a film much like the one presented. Only now there is a patina of history which adds a huge dimension to the film. The film quality is exactly what should be expected for a documentary of this era, shot in Africa, and any expectations otherwise are naive.

It's likely that the film would have been edited differently had it been released in 1974 or 1975; the engrossing build-up would probably have been shorter, and the actual concert element would have been longer (my only qualm with the film). But we don't know what additional footage exists (aside from the deleted scenes), so there may not have been many options for the editors. And certainly, film stock buried for nearly four decades is susceptible to damage (see the deleted scene featuring Muhhamad Ali, the GOAT, leaving for Africa). In view of the circumstances, the footage is often gorgeous. Some of the conversation snippets are so fascinating they seem scripted.

In addition to Miriam Makeba, there is a wonderful dance troupe who take the stage as well as Tabu Ley Rochereau and his band Afrisa, and OK Jazz- probably the biggest names in African music during the 1960s/70s before Fela Anikulapo Kuti's ascendancy- and their performances are stunning (with an additional Tabu Ley set piece in the deleted scenes).

Overall, a great flick.

At the time of this writing, media is still mourning, marketing or doing into sordid details of the recently departed Michael Jackson. What most people know or should know is one of Jackson's most favorite performers was James Brown. Brown was clearly the headliner of this historic concert festival that took place in Zaire in 1974.

There were other performers that came over on the airplane to perform. Among them were the vocal group the Spinners, the instrumental group the Crusaders, B.B. King with his group and the Cuban Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz. In fact, it's Cruz's group that's shown leading the impromptu jamming and singing though in fact, they're singing in Spanish.

We also get plenty of Don King, legal counsel Ian Strafford and Muhammed Ali. The fight is postponed due to a finger injury by George Foreman who's not shown at all. This film is best seen with WHEN WE WERE KINGS to provide better context. Ali's black pride and complaints about the white man are recorded but this doc should have been more about the music. But perhaps it's needed as Brown also makes his opinions known.

We get to see King going through his set list but only his hit "The Thrill is Gone" is showcased. Except for Brown, the rest of the performers also get just one song. There were a number of African performers but only Miriam Makeba out of them get one song.

Brown gets three songs and I thought the costume he was wearing a bit odd. He was into fusion jazz funk at this time which was not as commercial as his earlier hits. He also gets the last line to end the movie. "God d**n it, you are somebody" he says as he looks into the camera. Soul Brother Number One.

The scene is the setting of the 1974 'Rumble in the Jungle' world heavyweight fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The event is Zaire '74, a three day music festival in Kinshasa that featured black artists from both America and Africa. To this end we have a selection of soul, R&B, funk and blues mixed in with popular African music of the day. The event attracted a few big name American artists such as James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, The Spinners and The Crusaders. But what added to the overall feel of the event was that it uniquely allowed for the African-American musicians to not only perform to a whole new appreciative audience but to also return to their spiritual African roots.

The film is sort of unique because of its historical context where a group of film-makers were paid to professionally document everything but financial red tape resulted in the footage remaining unseen for over thirty years. Not only does this give the material an extra interest factor in itself but it has allowed for a new documentary to be made entirely using old unseen footage. Wisely, the editors have decided to only use footage from the time, with no contemporary interviews of participants looking back at events and reminiscing. This achieves two things in that it makes the material seem more urgent and of the time, while also attempting to finish the project that was abandoned over three decades previously by only using the footage actually shot. It documents events from the pre-concert stages through to the finale of the show. The details surrounding the event, like snippets of the locals, interviews with the participants and behind the scenes details make it a very interesting and rounded historical document. The fight itself is marginalised, although we do hear promoter Don King in full flow and Ali is seen several times letting fly with many of his opinions on race-related issues of the day. The music itself perhaps doesn't get as much of a showcase as it might but I think overall by including all of the periphery details the film-makers have captured a time and place even better.

"When We Were Kings" was a great film with soul and spirit explaining how this music festival and a world boxing match with Ali wound up in Zaire in 1974. I was hungry for more.

This short film just has 20 minutes of music and a lot of boring pointless dialog. Leon Gast had been hired to do the rockumentary of the festival so presumably the whole thing is on film. Most of the performances must still be on filmstock in Gast's apartment. This film is a disgrace and feels like the leftovers from "When We Were Kings"

Pros: Anytime James Brown or Muhammad Ali is on screen the world lights up. Miriam Makeba is awesome!

Cons: Only one song by Bill Withers. Only one song by BB King. Only one song by Miriam Makeba.

In 1974, George Foreman and Muhammad Ali had a fight in the jungle in Africa. They also decided to schedule a music festival too six weeks before the actual event. The top performers like Celia Cruz, James Brown, the Spinners, Bill Withers, Sister Sledge and others performed on stage. This documentary covers how they set up the concert. Most people are unaware of this event actually happened except for the actual boxing match. The documentary is a bit uneven at times without a narrator. They all seemed like to have a lot of fun though and it was an adventure of a lifetime.