Hugh Masekela Movies
Presented in conjunction with the landmark "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match between famed pugilists Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, Zaire '74 was a three-day music festival in Kinshasa that was organized by South African musician Hugh Masekela and American record producer Stewart Levine, and featured performances by such famed musicians as James Brown, Bill Withers, and B.B. King, among others. Many of the American musicians performing at Zaire '74 had been emboldened by the American Civil Rights movement, and saw their journey to Africa as a unique opportunity not just to perform for a new set of enthusiastic fans, but to explore their roots as well. However, while the forward-thinking promoters of Zaire '74 hired a talented team of documentary filmmakers to capture everything from the setup to the performances to everyday life in Kinshasa, the project ran into trouble when the Liberian investment group that financed the festival and film ran into some rather serious legal disputes. For the next three decades, the remarkable footage would sit untouched and unedited -- a valuable sociohistorical artifact seemingly forgotten, and left to succumb to the ravages of time. Later, in 1996, the rights were settled in order to help facilitate the completion of When We Were Kings, an Academy Award-winning documentary focusing on the very same Ali/Foreman match that took place alongside the Zaire '74 music festival. Recognizing the need to assemble the neglected Zaire '74 footage while it was still possible, When We Were Kings editor Jeffrey Levy-Hinte made it his own personal mission to see the long gestating project through to completion. The result is not simply a concert film featuring some of the most popular African and American musicians of the era, but also a pure cinéma vérité glimpse into a time when the musical crossover between the two nations was just beginning to emerge. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Don Cheadle stars as outspoken ex-convict and iconic radio personality Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene in a powerful biopic detailing the life and career of a media figure whose voice instilled the black community with hope during the turbulent 1960s. After talking his way onto the Washington, D.C. airwaves in the era of free love, a man emboldened by the inspirational soul music and rapidly expanding social consciousness that defined the decade openly courts controversy as his put-upon producer, Dewey Hughes (Chiwetel Ejiofor), runs interference. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, (more)
- 2002
Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates getting out of jail by travelling to Siberia in search of a wife. Victor Erice directed the impressionistic Lifeline, in which a family of Spanish farmers try to help an infant who has fallen ill. Werner Herzog visits the Uru Eus tribe of South America -- believed to have been the last unknown indigenous people on earth prior to their discover in 1981 -- and explores the often sad toll their discovery has taken upon them in Ten Thousand Years Older. Chloe Sevigny plays an film actress waiting out a ten-minute break in her trailer in Int. Trailer. Night, directed by Jim Jarmusch. Wim Wedners contributes Twelve Miles to Trona, in which a young man, dazed and ill, tries to drive himself to a doctor through a barren desert. Spike Lee looks into the Florida vote-counting scandal, and how Al Gore's assistants and supporters reacted to it, in the short documentary We Wuz Robbed. And in 100 Flowers Hidden Deep, directed by Chen Kaige, a delusional elderly man is convinced his furniture still stands in the vacant lot where his home used to be, and he persuades workers to help him move it away to safety. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, (more)
- 2002
- PG13
- Add Amandla! A Revolution In Four-Part Harmony to QueueAdd Amandla! A Revolution In Four-Part Harmony to top of Queue
Lee Hirsch spent nine years putting together the ambitious documentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony. The film records the history of music being used as a form of social protest against Apartheid in South Africa. Interviews and archival footage help to tell the tales of figures like Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, and Vuyisile Mini. Mini's songs became such a powerful social force that his remains were exhumed and reburied in order to show proper respect after the end of Apartheid. This look at political oppression and the courage required to fight it was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- 1999
- Add Hugh Masekela: Homecoming Concert to QueueAdd Hugh Masekela: Homecoming Concert to top of Queue
When Hugh Masekela returned to South Africa after the end of Apartheid, he embarked upon a legendary tour, 16 tracks of which are recorded here. Captured in one concert stop - at Standard Bank Arena in Johannesburg - Hugh Masekela: Homecoming Concert find the trumpeter in high spirits as he launches into such classics as "District Six" and "Stop the War." ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
- 1996
Nelson Mandela was born in the remote South African village of Qunu; an excellent student, Mandela went on to become a lawyer and then a political activist with the African National Congress, a political party who sought to bring down South Africa's Apartheid regime, in which the minority white population denied the most basic political and civil rights to the nation's black citizens. Mandela's vocal opposition of the South African government (and his refusal to repudiate violence as a response to the brutality inflicted upon blacks) resulted in his spending 27 years at hard labor in prison -- and in time led to his release, the legitimization of the ANC, and his election as South Africa's first black president. Mandela is a documentary that traces Mandela's story from his birth to his current status as a respected political leader, featuring interviews with Mandela and his contemporaries and newsreel footage that records the turbulent past of both Mandela and his nation. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1990
This Canadian documentary explores the life in exile of musicians from South Africa, Chile, and Cuba. Among those featured are the musical group Quilapayun and trumpeter Hugh Masekela. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1987
- Add Paul Simon: Graceland - The African Concert to QueueAdd Paul Simon: Graceland - The African Concert to top of Queue
In 1986, Paul Simon released his album Graceland, a ground-breaking collaboration with some of South Africa's finest musicians that brought the sensuous and expressive sounds of "Township Jive" to an international mass audience for the first time. Simon then mounted an international concert tour with several of the musicians that appeared on the album, and this home video release captures the final date of the tour in 1987, in which Simon, singer Miriam Makeba, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, and vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo brought the music back to Africa for a massive outdoor concert in Zimbabwe. Selections include "The Boy in the Bubble," "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," "You Can Call Me Al," "Homeless," "I Know What I Know," "Graceland," "Gumboots," and 11 more. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1987
This performance video features South African music and videos by South African artists, under apartheid. ~ Rovi
