Wattstax. 1973. USA. Directed by Mel Stuart. Cinematography by Larry Clark and others. With many of the great Stax recording artists, Richard Pryor, and a cast of thousands. DCP. 103 min.
In 1972, as tensions continued to burn over the police brutality that led to the Watts Riots of August 1965, an all-day concert was held to benefit the Black community that Los Angeles had not ceased to neglect and abuse. With echoes of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival so movingly captured in Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul, R&B, gospel, and soul stars of the Memphis-based Stax Records, including Kim Weston, the Staple Sisters, Albert King, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, and Isaac Hayes, performed at the Los Angeles Coliseum before a crowd of some 100,000 spectators. His voice rising to the occasion, Richard Pryor would declare, “All of us have something to say, but some are never heard…. For over six hours, the audience heard, felt, sang, danced, and shouted the living word in a soulful expression of the Black experience. This is a film of that experience and what some of the people have to say.” In attendance onstage and off were Jesse Jackson, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Billy Eckstine, Jackie Robinson, and Melvin Van Peebles. Capturing the concert, as well as the neighboring community that vibrated with street life, was a top-notch team of cameramen overseen by the great John A. Alonzo (Chinatown, Scarface), including Larry Clark, Robert Marks, Jose Louis Mignone, Roderick Young, and David Myers.