Scorsese plus others do PBS series about the blues
07-12-02, 09:30 AM
#1
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2000
Location: I was here but I disappear
Posts: 8,407
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Scorsese plus others do PBS series about the blues
I haven't seen this posted anywhere (it's from http://www.scorsesefilms.com/news.htm ):
PBS Gets the Blues
Mon Feb 11,11:04 PM ET
By Ed Meza
BERLIN (Variety) - Top directors Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders and Mike Figgis are joining forces with PBS to shoot six films about the blues.
The projects will examine the nature and emotional impact of blues music and explain how it evolved from folk music into a world language. Also on board to shoot episodes are directors Marc Levin ("Slam"), Richard Pearce ("A Family Thing") and Charles Burnett ("The Wedding").
Scorsese is set to do the first picture in the series, "From Mali to Mississippi," which traces the beginnings of the blues in Africa and its journey to the New World with original compositions from contemporary artists such as Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita and Habib Koite.
Figgis takes a look at the blues' influence on British music of the 1960s with artists including Eric Clapton, Tom Jones and the Rolling Stones. Wenders' "Devil Got My Woman" looks at religious and secular elements in the music with profiles of Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J.B. Lenoir. Wenders won acclaim for his 1999 Afro-Cuban documentary "Buena Vista Social Club." Levin's installment, "Godfathers and Sons," follows Public Enemy frontman Chuck D and Chicago blues label scion Marshall Chess as they bring together hip-hop musicians and blues veterans for their jointly produced album. Using documentary film material, Burnett highlights the blues' conflicting spiritual and carnal dimensions in "Warming by the Devil's Fire," the semi-fictional tale of a boy in 1955 Vicksburg, Miss. -- the director's hometown. Memphis is the focus in Pearce's "Moaning at Midnight," which showcases the city that produced Howlin' Wolf, Otis Redding, B.B. King and Elvis Presley. The picture offers never-before-seen footage of Wolf and Redding.
Mon Feb 11,11:04 PM ET
By Ed Meza
BERLIN (Variety) - Top directors Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders and Mike Figgis are joining forces with PBS to shoot six films about the blues.
The projects will examine the nature and emotional impact of blues music and explain how it evolved from folk music into a world language. Also on board to shoot episodes are directors Marc Levin ("Slam"), Richard Pearce ("A Family Thing") and Charles Burnett ("The Wedding").
Scorsese is set to do the first picture in the series, "From Mali to Mississippi," which traces the beginnings of the blues in Africa and its journey to the New World with original compositions from contemporary artists such as Ali Farka Toure, Salif Keita and Habib Koite.
Figgis takes a look at the blues' influence on British music of the 1960s with artists including Eric Clapton, Tom Jones and the Rolling Stones. Wenders' "Devil Got My Woman" looks at religious and secular elements in the music with profiles of Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J.B. Lenoir. Wenders won acclaim for his 1999 Afro-Cuban documentary "Buena Vista Social Club." Levin's installment, "Godfathers and Sons," follows Public Enemy frontman Chuck D and Chicago blues label scion Marshall Chess as they bring together hip-hop musicians and blues veterans for their jointly produced album. Using documentary film material, Burnett highlights the blues' conflicting spiritual and carnal dimensions in "Warming by the Devil's Fire," the semi-fictional tale of a boy in 1955 Vicksburg, Miss. -- the director's hometown. Memphis is the focus in Pearce's "Moaning at Midnight," which showcases the city that produced Howlin' Wolf, Otis Redding, B.B. King and Elvis Presley. The picture offers never-before-seen footage of Wolf and Redding.
