Presented FREE February 18 through 21 in collaboration with the University of Iowa department of Cinematic Arts series Black Lives on Screen. To access this FREE film, you will need to create a FilmScene account (or use your existing FilmScene account). This will take you through the purchasing process and will include the film at the $0 price.
"Enthralling and illuminating." - The New Yorker
"A thrilling, and revolutionary, slice of Black American television history." - Hollywood Reporter
From 1968 to 1973, the public television variety show called SOUL!, guided by the enigmatic producer and host Ellis Haizlip, offered an unfiltered, uncompromising celebration of Black literature, poetry, music, and politics - voices that had few other options for national exposure, and, as a result, found the program an improbable place to call home.
The series was among the first to provide expanded images of African Americans on television, shifting the gaze from inner-city poverty and violence to the vibrancy of the Black Arts Movement. With participants' recollections and illuminating archival clips, Mr. SOUL! captures a critical moment in culture whose impact continues to resonate, and an unsung hero whose voice we need now more than ever to restore the SOUL of the nation.