Late last year we noted that Jeffrey Levy-Hinte’s documentary, “Soul Power” had its North American distribution rights picked up by Sony Classic Pictures.
The documentary follows the little known Zaire 74′ music festival surrounding the legendary Ali/Foreman “Rumble In The Jungle” match-up (winningly depicted in the ’96 doc, “When We Were Kings“). It premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and then was scooped up in November.
Essentially crafted from the extensive “outtakes” that remained after making “When We Were Kings,” the amazing thing about the concert documentary is that venerable cinematographers like Albert Maysles (cinéma vérité godfather), Paul Goldsmith (“Rust Never Sleeps”), Kevin Keating (“Harlan County U.S.A”) and Roderick Young (“Wattstax”) shot the event, but the footage lay forgotten for 34 years until Levy-Hinte unearthed it and decided to spool it together into a film. We tried to go and see the film this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival, but, yeah, it didn’t happen.
Here’s the synopsis:
In 1974, the most celebrated American R&B acts of the time came together with the most renowned musical groups in Africa for a 12-hour, three-night long concert held in Kinshasa, Zaire. The dream-child of Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine, this music festival became a reality when they convinced boxing promoter Don King to combine the event with “The Rumble in the Jungle,” the epic fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, previously chronicled in the Academy Award-winning documentary WHEN WE WERE KINGS. SOUL POWER is a verité documentary about this legendary music festival (dubbed “Zaire ‘74”), and it depicts the experiences and performances of such musical luminaries as James Brown, BB King, Bill Withers, Celia Cruz, Sister Sledge, The Spinners, The Crusaders, South African soul singer, Miriam Makeba and the music ensemble, the Fania All-Stars.
“Soul Power” hits theaters in limited release on July 10, 2009 via Sony Pictures Classics.
