Mr. Soul! 2018

Title: Mr. Soul!
EXTERNAL URL: IMDB | TMDB | ROTTEN
Languages: English
Genres: Documentary,
Runtime: 1:44:00 Hour
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Michael Jackson, Blair Underwood
Directors: Melissa Haizlip, Sam Pollard
Rating: 7.8 (271 Votes)
TomatoMeter: 96 %
Audiance Score: 71 %
Critics Consensus: Mr. SOUL! aims an overdue spotlight on a groundbreaking chapter in the history of American public television -- and the host who helped make it all happen.
Year: 2018
Summary: Before Oprah, before Arsenio, there was Mr. SOUL. Ellis Haizlip ensures that the Revolution would be televised with "SOUL!," America's first "Black Tonight Show." From 1968 to 1973, the public-television variety show SOUL!, guided by 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 a nation.