Wednesday April 25, 9:15pm at Cinépolis Chelsea
Thursday April 26, 6:30pm at Regal Cinemas Battery Park
(USA) – World Premiere
Section: Tribeca TV
This documentary has been a long time coming, and from the opening credits to the, yes, soul-stirring opening featuring crooner Al Green, it’s obvious we’re all in for something extra-special.
Yet by film’s end, that will be an understatement.
“Mr. SOUL!” offers an entertaining and essential look at the groundbreaking public television show SOUL!, which, under producer-host Ellis Haizlip’s passionate guidance, showcased the breadth of Black artistry and genius from 1968 to 1973.
Wait? If you’re under the age of 50, you may be telling yourself how it is possible you’ve never heard of SOUL! But if in the past 30 years you’ve paid even half- attention to archival clips of soul music performance and interviews, you’ve gotten a glimpse of this unique New York City produced program that featured both superstar and breakthrough individuals and groups in Black diaspora music, literature, poetry (especially!) politics, and more.
Naturally for the time, and to a sharp degree even now, SOUL! existed out of a need for Black stories to be told, to give these voices a platform that a racist society never would. It became more though, and even became more than ‘appointment television’ – which it also was – it would be a place these artists, and all Americans, could call home.
And from poets and writers like Toni Morrison, Nikki Giovanni and The Last Poets, stage actors like Novella Nelson, dancer Carmen De Lavallade, future superstar musicians like Earth, Wind & Fire, Ashford & Simpson, and Kool & the Gang, to name just a few, SOUL! would be the first time any of them were featured on national television and go onto worldwide and critical acclaim. For superstars like Stevie Wonder, it presented an opportunity to be unrestricted. And the footage we see of all this is amazing.
But “Mr. SOUL!” is also very much about the ‘Mr.’ in the title. Ellis Haizlip’s history is fluidly unfurled in and out of the archival footage showing the genesis of the show. From a conservative Midwest upbringing, to becoming entranced in theatre while visiting his sister at Howard University, to producing James Baldwin’s plays throughout Europe, co-creating, producing, and eventually hosting SOUL! was predestined for Haizlip, who even before the show knew practically everyone in the Black arts circles. That he is unknown by so many of us is devastating. Yet, his neice, the director of “Mr. SOUL!” Melissa Haizlip, in her decade long journey in making this documentary – along with the guiding hand of co-director and filmmaking genius Sam Pollard – has blessed the world with.
It’s a bit unprofessional to tell how emotionally effected you are by watching a particular film, but in this case, it lends to the whole point of the documentary. Haizlip and company set out to show viewers the scope of the African-American and African diaspora experience, and succeeded past probably even their expectations. SOUL! was Black Excellence unbound and unrestricted, broadcast weekly, but felt eternally. For a critic and film professional such as myself, one who has dedicated his life toward doing similar work for the Black experience, “Mr. SOUL!” at multiple points is emotionally overwhelming in its story of this dedicated man and the artists, activists, and intellectuals he featured.
The Al Green song that opens the film is his classic “Tired of Being Alone,” which is how it often feels when one has dedicated themselves to uplifting people with positive and uncompromising works.
The musician Questlove caps off the film with the essential statement: “Imagine if SOUL! had been on for 20 years [instead of five]?” Yes, imagine how different all our lives would be, how America would be. We can only imagine, but we can live our lives with the positive answer.
BaL Festival Rating: 5/5
Directors: Melissa Haizlip and Samuel Pollard
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA
Runtime: 115 min.
The 2018 Tribeca Film Festival runs from April 18 – 29 in New York City
Follow Film & TV Editor Curtis Caesar John on Twitter (@MediaManCurt)
