Black Note

Black music on white screen

The panorama devoted to black music doesn't fail to shake the purists. Beyoncé Knowles and Justin Timberlake are alongside Papa Wendo and the overdriven guitars of the Touareg rebellion in Mali’s Tinariwen band. The blues is also allotted ample space (The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins), as is reggae (Rocksteady, the Roots of Reggae) and jazz (Jazz’34), thanks to fifteen films that pose the question: how do you film a sound?

• The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins, Les Blank, USA, 1970, 31’
• A Well Spent Life, Les Blank, USA, 1972, 44’                                                                                  
• Bird, Clint Eastwood, USA, 1981, 161’
• Mississipi Blues, Robert Parrish, Bertrand Tavernier, USA, France, 1983, 107’
• Jazz'34, Robert Altman, USA, 1988, 72’
• Thelonious Monk : Straigt no Chaser, Charlotte Zwerin, USA, 1988, 90’
• Gnaouas, Izza Genini, Morocco, 1990, 26’
• Tambours battants, Izza Genini, Morocco, France, 1999, 52’                                                                   
• Mo' Better Blues, Spike Lee, USA, 1990, 129’                                                                                
• Hustle & Flow, Craig Brewer, USA, 2005, 116’
• Black Snake Moan, Craig Brewer, USA, 2006, 116’
• Teshumara, les guitares de la rébellion touareg, Jérémie Reichenbach, France, 2006, 51’
• On the Rumba River, Jacques Sarasin, Congo, 2007, 85’
• Cadillac Records, Darnell Martin, USA, 2008, 85’
• Rocksteady, the roots of  Reggae, Stascha Bader, Switzerland, Canada, 2009, 98’

Catalogue extract