Music is My Life, Politics My Mistress: The Story of Oscar Brown, Jr.
- More Than Five Years in the Making, Brown Sees Film Before His Death -
"An often funny, witty documentary..." Bob Longino, AJC
SCREENING AT:
SIDEWALK MOVING PICTURES (Birmingham, AL) SEPTEMBER 24, 2005
MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL (San Rafael, CA) OCTOBER 9 & 10
Weeks before the death of legendary artist Oscar Brown, Jr., a documentary film on his life was screened at the Maryland Film Festival in Baltimore. Music is My Life, Politics My Mistress: The Story of Oscar Brown, Jr., released by No Credits Productions, is a rich and intimate look at the Renaissance man -- musician, writer, poet, playwright, and civil rights activist. The Chicago native is credited with writing more than a thousand songs, a dozen musical plays and engaged in a rare brand of social activism. "Social activism was an integral part of his character," says filmmaker donnie l. betts, who produced and directed the film. "OBJ always said 'an artist has a social responsibility to the community to educate as well as entertain -- it's about the people, and not about money.' That philosophy influenced my artistic life and led me to create this film."
Brown initially saw an early cut of the film with his good friends, Amiri Baraka and Melvin Van Peebles, at the Denver Pan African Film Festival in 2004. Baraka leapt to his feet and said, "bravo!" and with tears in his eyes, Brown said, "you captured me."
The film examines Brown's life from his professional debut at age 15 to his last performance with daughter Maggie Brown at the prestigious Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles where they performed "People of Soul" from Brown's play, Great Nitty Gritty. The film features Brown's music, ("Hazel Hips") poetry, ("Forty Acres and a Mule") his work with the first radio broadcast for Black America, (The Negro News Front) and his political musings, ("Why are we called African-Americans?"). Others featured in the film are wife Jean Pace, Nichelle Nichols, Al Jarreau, Abbey Lincoln, Amiri Baraka, the late Vernon Jarrett, Charles Weldon, Lu Vason, and Studs Terkel.
Film clips can be viewed at http://www.musicismylife.info
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