Soul Power

Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's film 'Soul Power'is a remarkable concert documentary that was filmed in Zaire in 1974,as part of the Muhammad Ali/George Forman fight,known as The Rumble In The Jungle. This was a 12 hour,three night festival of musical talent from various parts of Africa,as well as the United States. The film begins with footage of the preparations for the concert,and the red tape and b.s. that goes along with putting on a concert of grand scale. Once the music begins,it's no holds barred. The musical talent includes,James Brown,The Crusaders,Miriam Makeba,B.B. King,The Fania All Stars (with the late,great Celia Cruz), The Spinners,and a host of others. Interview footage of Muhammad Ali, Don King,and others representing the boxing match also figures as a foot note (for further details,check out Leon Gast's 'Once We Were King',which Levy-Hinte edited),about the actual match itself). The music will have you stomping holes in the floor of the cinema that is screening it. Rated PG-13 by the MPAA,this films contains a rude word or two,and some mature thematic elements

It's 1974 Kinshasa, Zaire. Promoters Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine are organizing a companion music festival for the Ali-Foreman fight. It is to be the combination of African American music and musicians from mother Africa. James Brown is the headliner. A few days before the event, the fight is delayed due to Foreman's eye cut. The problem is that the music festival can not be delayed. The show must go on. This documentary starts like a freight train with James Brown and Soul Power. The main problem stems from the fact that it doesn't follow one person. It's a scattered way to tell a narrative. There is no structure. It's more like a series of behind-the-scenes snippets. There are amazing scenes of the stars talking, and some great musical performances. It's a nice series of vignettes that allows the audience to travel back in time to a specific place.

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.

Entertaining. Nice to see Muhammad Ali and James Brown and Celia Cruz and the dance styles of the Crusaders. The other African performers were on top of their acts, too.

You will look back on James Brown's bid to give some direction to the black movement as uncomplicated. And it is nice to see that so much as changed in the way of overt discrimination in the U.S.

I felt that I wanted to see a 4 hour movie. I wanted to see the entire concert, and that is good. It has a really funny part wherein Muhammad Ali plays with someone. I won't tell you what it is about.

James Brown pleads with you to go out on the side walk and tell yourself: "I am somebody".

I loved the performance by Cuban artist and Diva Celia Cruz. There were no negatives in the movie except that much of it is hand-held, grainy color. Again, I just wanted it to go on and on.

I got my monies worth.