Power of Soul (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Marc Fehse, Carsten Fehse
	Actors: James Brown (The Blues Brothers), Bobby Byrd, Marva Whitney, Martha High, Gwen McCrae, Georg McCrae, Clyde Stubblefield, Osaka Monaurail, Kurtis Blow
	Country: D
	Genre: Documentary, Music
	Conditions of visioning: 31.08.2013, Viehhof Open-Air cinema
Synopsis: Around the definition of Soul music, Funk and Hip-Hop, with James Brown the godfather of all, and other influencial artists.
Review: This documentary sems to be very recent and not well known, it doesn't have an IMDB page yet but you can learn all about it on the webpage http://www.thepowerofsoul.de. I went to see it because of my interest in Funk music, because the documentary mentions the Japanese band Osaka Monaurail that I have seen performing several times, and because it was playing in open-air on a gigantic screen. The experience was interesting. Many artists are interviewed and sometimes give anecdotes about the history of music, like the fact that Funk music is like Waltz but sped up 4 to 8 times, or that Hip-Hop originated from Soul and was the Black answer to Disco in the 70's. The interview from James Brown dates a few years before his death in 2006, and all other interviews span the last ten years and were recorded all around the globe. The interviews are linked with either original TV footage from the 50's, a narrator's voice in German or some nice animations. Unfortunately the image quality is rather poor (grain, definition, colors) and after watching the trailer on a computer screen I am sure it was not due to the projection system but to the movie itself. Even more importantly the structure of the documentary is not well done, there is not always a logical link between the interviews (sometimes it looks more like a collection of them) and there is a lack of a story that should guide the viewer through the movie and conclude with a satisfying ending.
Rating: 4 /10