SCREENING IN THE BERNARD OSHER FOUNDATION AUDITORIUM
In partnership with Charles Nero, Benjamin E. Mays ’20 Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies and Africana at Bates College, PMA Films is excited to announce a new annual film series, “Connection and Collaboration.” The series, which is free and open to the public, will group films that examine and celebrate the ways African Americans collaborate across their differences for their survival. The films are presented in conjunction with a series of local events commemorating Juneteenth.
“[A] stunning record of music as politics in a post-1960s civil rights movement context.”
103 minutes. Rated R. Directed by Mel Stuart.
In 1972, Stax Records organized a benefit concert to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the riots in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The epochal “Black Woodstock” held at LA’s Memorial Coliseum featured incendiary performances by Stax artists Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Staple Singers, the Emotions, the Bar-Kays, and other greats of soul, R&B, and gospel—plus biting humor from a then little-known Richard Pryor. Wattstax is more than a concert film; It also captures a heady moment in mid-1970s African American culture, when the community came together to celebrate its survival and renewed hope in its future.