During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.
James Brown changed the face of American music forever. Abandoned by his parents at an early age, James Brown was a self-made man who became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, not just through his music, but also as a social activist. Charting his journey from rhythm and blues to funk, MR. DYNAMITE: THE RISE OF JAMES BROWN features rare and previously unseen footage, photographs and interviews, chronicling the musical ascension of “the hardest working man in show business,” from his first hit, “Please, Please, Please,” in 1956, to his iconic performances at the Apollo Theater, the T.A.M.I. Show, the Paris Olympia and more.
This was one of a series of concerts James Brown gave at the Apollo in Harlem in March 1968. This performance was broadcast on television as James Brown: Man To Man.
In addition to 16 vintage color performances from the concert, this special also includes film of James Brown walking the streets of Harlem and Watts as he speaks to the state of Black America and describes the political and socioeconomic advances that need to be accomplished:
“My flight is for Black American to become American.”—James Brown
This concert is much a 1968 James Brown time capsule as it is a timeless representation of how music can change the world.
Finding the Funk is a road trip in search of the past, present and future of Funk music. Starting with Funk's roots in Jazz and the James Brown bands of the '60s we travel to the Bay Area to celebrate Sly & the Family Stone, then to Dayton the birthplace of so many of Funk's originators, then onto Detroit where from the ashes of Motown, P-Funk's Mothership arose, and then to LA where a new crop of musicians are creating their own Funk history. On our journey into Funk, we talk to legends Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, Maceo Parker, Bernie Worrell, and Steve Arrington and their descendants Mike D, D'Angelo, Sheila E, Shock G and Sade's Stuart Matthewman. Narrated by Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson of the Roots.
These are live performances from a television music show that aired late night on the NBC-TV network the U.S., from 1973-1981.
Funk legend Sly Stone disappeared from the limelight for more than 20 years. Musicians and the media tried to find the recluse but failed. In 2005 Willem Alkema started searching for Sly. Sly didn't want to be found or filmed, but Willem didn't give up and finally followed Sly in his first steps on stage in decades.
One Nation Under A Groove - P-Funk Documentary 2005 Known to its legions of fans simply as P-Funk, Parliament Funkadelic has had a profound impact on the development of contemporary music, aesthetics and culture. PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC: One Nation Under a Groove chronicles the unique alchemy of the musical influences that fed into the band`s singular approach to music, documenting P-Funk`s continuing influence on today`s artists and musicians and featuring an in-depth look at the musical and entrepreneurial mastermind of its leader George Clinton.
In the year that marks 10 years since MC Daleste's murder, Sobre Funk produced an exclusive documentary about the artist's history and impact on the Brazilian music scene.
Who are the chicks that make up the funk movement, and where are they? Funk has always been a form of protest, just as being a woman is. BEAT IS PROTEST: FUNK FROM A FEMALE PERSPECTIVE depicts the last decade underground scene of the funk women protesters in São Paulo. The testimonies come from transgender and cisgender women who navigate this universe in different roles, such as singers, DJs, beat-makers, producers, entrepreneurs, rappers, and dancers, and also from drag queens.
Comedian/filmmaker Camille Solari spends the last year interviewing the legendary musical icon James Brown before his untimely death on Christmas 2006. The documentary includes interviews with his band members and many celebrity musicians who have been influenced by James Brown, including Patti Labelle, Chuck D (Public Enemy), Doug E Fresh, Emcee Lyte, Bobby Brown, Fergie, Wil.I.Am.
A documentary on funk and P-funk and the bands and artists that made it all happen: James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Maurice White and his Earth Wind & Fire, Average White Band, Kool & The Gang and lots more. It tells the story of black American music and how it evolved from funk to more main stream to disco to hiphop to contemporary R 'n B and its impact on society. Music and live footage from the bands, interviews with artists and band members of Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, George Clinton and lots more.
In the racially turbulent UK of the early 70s, a group of black musicians came together in South London with a common love of rhythms and a message of peace. Cymande – with the dove as their symbol – combined jazz, funk, soul and Caribbean grooves to form a unique sound. Despite success in the USA they faced indifference in their native Britain, becoming disillusioned and disbanding. But the music lived on, as new generations of artists imbibed and reworked their pioneering sounds in fresh ways. From Soul II Soul to De La Soul, MC Solaar to The Fugees, the Dove had spread Cymande's message far and wide, prompting their return after forty years. This is their story.
In the summer of 1992 two filmmakers, Jeroen Berkvens and Walter Stokman, travelled through the United States of America. They were searching for tracks of the famous soulsinger Sly Stone.
George Clinton's somewhat absurdist take on Parliament-Funkadelic history. Features never-before-granted access to his archive and spotlights his alter egos and friends
Documentary about the life of jazz and funk saxophonist, Maceo Parker
The untold true story: The rise and fall of the greatest funk band ever, Parliament Funkadelic.
One man's search for the prolific funk legend, Sly Stone.
The James Brown Story