This exuberant, distinctively high-minded documentary, now restored, comes from the Oscar-winning though now somewhat overlooked film-maker Denis Sanders, made just one year after his renowned 1970 film Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, about Elvis Presley in Las Vegas. Soul to Soul is a record of an epic independence day concert in Accra, Ghana, in 1971, given by American and Ghanaian musicians. Ghana was chosen as it was the first sub-Saharan African nation to gain independence from Britain. Among the US contingent were Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, Santana, the Staple Singers and the Voices of East Harlem.
The concert and film can be seen now as part of the American Black consciousness debate of the time, which specifically prized the concept of the African motherland and the spiritual importance of returning to the wellspring of Black American inspiration. With its shots of the musicians aboard the plane to Ghana, and the rich and teeming ambient material showing Accra’s street life, you might find yourself reminded of Leon Gast’s When We Were Kings, about the Ali/Foreman fight in what was then Zaire, although without the talking-head perspective. There are richly enjoyable performances, and the extreme closeup shots of Tina Turner are where its energy is at its most visceral.
This is a film in which there is no tension and no debate; there is a broad celebratory unity. The onstage performances themselves are interleaved with segments out in the city streets, including a funeral, complete with sobbing widow. There is a visit to a slave castle, and ruminations on Ghana’s tragic connection with the slave trade. But there are no backstage scenes, no interviews with anyone waiting around to go on. It is about the music, the community and the history.
Soul to Soul is in UK cinemas from 6 March.