Finding Fela!

Finding Fela, by Alex Gibney, is quite an ordinary documentary that portrays an extra-ordinary man and his story.

Of course the movie is a must-see for music-lovers, in particular jazz fans. There are many clips and concert fragments to enjoy, even if some of them are a little less sharp due to the age of the footage, which sometimes looks like it was taken from Youtube. But the movie offers more; it tells the story of an activist who is using 'music as a weapon' and his lifestyle as an example of freedom. Finally the movie also puts Fela's music at an important place in musical history, recognizing it as one of the building blocks and milestones of jazz, bringing in elements of soul, funk, rock and African sounds. Fela called it Afrobeat.

Like some other musicians in the 60s and 70s Fela likes to play long cores, sometimes for over more than 30 minutes, making it hard to play his music on the radio. In his defense, he wonders why no-one ever questioned Beethoven or Bach for writing long pieces of music. I would say that even in his own time slot and not only in jazz, there were more musicians that could not be bothered by 3-minute frames, think of Frank Zappa or Deep Purple.

The personal story of Fela the man and his Nigerian roots completes the musical story, and makes him truly stand out. His struggle against the Nigerian government, lead by Obasanjo who came from a similar family in the same part of the country as Fela Kuti did, is a harsh one. This common background and the prestige of the Kuti family, might have saved Fela for some years, but in the end the military acted out, causing Fela's beloved mother to die, his home to be eradicated and Fela being put in jail. Although the film doesn't display all the details about this attack, the severity and cruel nature is clearly portrayed. It is shocking to realize what happened, and to know little has changed in the years after. The fact that Fela never left the country to live somewhere else, is something to admire.

The director chose to take the performance of the American made musical – Fela – in Lagos as the hook to tell his story, which is a good idea, particularly to explain something about how difficult it is to understand Fela, his mind and the context in which he lived. It also explains the title of the movie: the director of the musical discusses these things with Fela's friends, family and fellow-musicians. They try to get an idea about what made Fela tick and how to present that in the musical. This is a smart way to make the audience part of the search. But to my mind clips from the musical took up too much time; it is so much better to look at and listen to the real Fela, that it gets annoying to watch actors play Fela (however well done). But if this is the only point of criticism, it is easy to overcome. Listen to Fela through his recordings, and see the movie for food for thought about this brave and talented man.

For something that seems thrown together, this is an enjoyable documentary. The musical segments alone are worth the price of admission, and the developing sense of Fela's place in the canon of world pop singers is a great bonus.

Along with snippets of actual performances, there's a lot of footage of interviews with a dozen people close to him, including family and band members, and a few brief interviews with Fela himself. The interviews are well chosen and often moving.

But the fun is lessened by a few flaws.

Many of the most colorful parts of the film were filmed in the 1980's and 1990's in low resolution, so the images are very fuzzy. Still, these scenes are among the most memorable, and they may well have been the best that were available.

Fela's performances excited his fans, but the documentary offers only a partial, poorly organized account of his growth into a superstar. Each individual segment is informative enough, but the sequencing of segments film seems haphazard with little coherence or concern for building on what came before.

Fela is a fascinating figure and his music is magnificent. However this film is weakened by its trying to be 2 documentaries in one: the story of the Broadway show Fela and the story of Fela's life. Included are some fine interviews with people who were close to him.

This movie unfolds a bit like a Fela song…

In the beginning it comes across as a doc about the B'way play. How they struggled with portraying Fela, a complex, powerful yet conflicted God. How to explain The Man to those that likely have never heard of him, much less know and love his music and his message. Like explaining Buddha or Jesus, its a bit slow but an interesting challenge.

Then Fela's personal history and the larger context of his family, nation, education and temperament come into play. Subtle but gradually more engaging, gathering steam. Again mimicking the progression of a Fela arrangement.

The meat of the film is quite cogent and lays out the philosophy and politics that drive Fela's life. Surrounding himself with lovers and followers, standing up and mocking those who make Nigerian life such a struggle. That Fela never shied away, backed down, in fact only made stronger by the oppression of his situation, this comes across very well.

Musically it does a decent job of explaining the extraordinary level of Fela's three principal bands. Interviews with the Players are very insightful in both the incredible musicianship and dedication to the pursuit. But for those of us that saw Fela live and still listen, collect and love his music, for understandable reasons it is here the film falls just a bit short. As the record companies said, "What three minutes of this 25 minute song can we put on the radio?". And thus one has to be content with the interviews and brief concert footage. This is not a concert film.

Likely if you are watching this film, Fela's long format songs are familiar and inspire film goers to drop everything for 30 minutes and drop a needle on listening to a full length "Zombie" or "Expensive S**t".

Some the film editing/audio cuts are quite extraordinary. Post on this must have been a bear but this team really delivers.

Most moving- at least for me- was the unfolding story of Fela's funeral. It too plays out like one of his songs. When someone says a million people show up, it comes across as an exaggeration… until you see the footage. Powerful.

Truly one of the greats. Of Africa. Of Music. Of Philosophy. Fela.

Alex Gibney's Finding Fela is a very nice documentary that recalls the life and times of Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti. Gibney does a good job of intercutting video footage of the musical artist, alongside interviews with people familiar with him, as well as his admirers. Though over long, this documentary does its job just fine.

The film takes us through Fela's life, including interviews with people who knew or were familiar with the artist: his manager, Rikki Stein; his drummer, Tony Allen; Sandra Izadore, a musician who worked with him; and even a brief interview with Paul McCartney. It shows us his early days when as a young man he decided, while living in Nigeria, to head to London. Fela's career rose as a popular musician, who used songs and words in the 1970's, instead of violence, to protest the war in his country, as well as addressing other social issues going on in the world at that time. Fela eventually died from AIDS in 1997, and millions of people showed up at his funeral to pay their respects to him and what he stood for.

A lot of Finding Fela seems to be thrown together, but this film is intercut in a very interesting way. While it does tell us the story of Fela, this documentary is also about the making of a musical based off of Fela's life. So while we (the audience) are watching the documentary styled life story, we are also being shown scenes from the musical being rehearsed as if they were being shown in a real historical documentary format. We even get a scene where we're shown the shrine that Fela performed in as it is today and not just in the past or in clips. This way, the film is more than just a documentary, it is also an overall tribute to Fela's influence and music.

The film portrays Fela as a human being, not as a hero or as a villain, but as someone who had flaws, such as his belief in unprotected sex which led to his contracting AIDS. I admire the film for that, because it could have been a complete love letter and shown Fela as the perfect human being, when just like all of us, he wasn't.

This is the first time I ever actually encountered Fela Kuti's name. After watching this documentary, I'm actually interested in researching more about the singer who led a pretty interesting life, if this documentary is anything to go by.