Musically Speaking – The Gospel According to Al Green

Please join us for “Musically Speaking” with DJ Soul Sister – A weekly series of music-themed movies and documentaries, curated and hosted by DJ Soul Sister, and co-presented by Charitable Film Network, Press Street, New Orleans African American Museum, Whole Foods Market, and WWOZ.  FREE Admission and Refreshments! Cash bar.  For more information, contact mail@charitablefilmnetwork.org.

*NEW TIME & LOCATION for December: 7:00 p.m. Mondays at the New Orleans African American Museum – 1418 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans, LA.

SCREENING SCHEDULE:
Monday, December 3rd at 7:00pm
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO AL GREEN
by Robert Mugge

Shot at the tail end of 1983, this documentary about soul music legend and Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame inductee Al Green went into production about a decade after Green’s famous conversion to Pentecostalism, and six years after his purchase of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis and his temporary refusal to perform any of his soulful R&B hits again. Filmmaker Robert Mugge intercuts a shockingly candid interview with Green, an impromptu recording session of the chart-topper “Let’s Stay Together” (with Green agreeing to set aside his secular music ban for the sake of Mugge’s cameras), concert footage, and a sermon at Green’s church. All Movie Guide also called the film among the “most brilliant music documentaries of the past quarter century,” saying it “serves as a profound reflection on the link, historically, between secular soul music and African-American gospel music” and “witnesses one of the greatest of all soul singers at the peak of his abilities” (1984, 94 minutes)

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Monday, December 10th at 7:00pm
WHEEDLE’S GROOVE: SEATTLE’S FORGOTTEN SOUL OF THE 1960s & 70s
by Jennifer Maas

During the late 60s and early 70s, decades before Nirvana, Microsoft and Starbucks put Seattle on the map, Seattle’s African American neighborhood of Central District buzzed with soul groups like Black On White Affair, Cookin Bag, and Cold Bold & Together. The bands filled local airwaves and packed clubs seven nights a week, but soon slipped into obscurity. 30 years later, local crate digger DJ Mr. Supreme approached Light In The Attic Records about releasing compilation of these obscure Funk records. At the release party, a line of nostalgic 60 year-old fans and funk-hungry 20-somethings wrapped around the block as the musicians inside (currently working as graphic designers, janitors, and truck drivers), reflected on music dreams derailed, and prepared to perform together for the first time in 30 years. (2011, 87 minutes)

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Monday, December 17th at 7:00pm
OUR LATIN THING
by Leon Gast

On August 26th, 1971, New York City gave birth to a sound that would change the face of Latin music forever. That evening at the renowned Cheetah Nightclub, The Fania All-Stars hit the stage with a unique sound that would forever change Latin music. This film, shot all over Spanish Harlem in New York City, explores the musical celebrations of the city’s Puerto Rican population, and features Latin music greats like Ray Baretto, Willie Colon, Larry Harlow, Hector Lavoe, Johnny Pacheco, Bobby Valentin, and many more. The New York Times wrote, “If salsa is today a globally popular and influential dance music style, that is due in no small part to Our Latin Thing.” (1972, 102 minutes)

No films on December 24 and 31 – Happy Holidays!