DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Wattstax (1973)

Cruising the aisles of Wal-Mart, I found a spangly DVD marked Wattstax. I had never heard of this movie before, and no one had ever spoken of it — even in my film studies class at my HBCU alma mater. I picked it up and learned from the back text blurb this event was billed as a “Black Woodstock”. I had no idea that Woodstock-like events needed to be segregated (the killing of Meredith Hunter at the 1969 Alameda Free Concert by the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club notwithstanding), so I brought it home out of curiosity. What I watched blew me away as a time capsule of 1972 Los Angeles, documenting life for Black people on the West Coast. And given that my folks came to this country in the early 1970’s, I had to show them. The reaction from my parents was amazing: they smiled, laughed, and gave me an education on what was what back then. What I learned about how this movie came to be was an eye opener on Black history.

I AM…SOMEBODY!: Rev. Jesse Jackson with members of the Operation PUSH, holding up a fist of Black ethnic solidarity. Or Black power, if you so choose, for there is power in ethnic solidarity.

100,000 BROTHERS AND SISTERS TURNING ON TO BEING BLACK…TELLING IT LIKE IT IS!

Seven years after the 1965 Watts uprising, the neighborhood of Watts was still recovering and rebuilding. Despite the necessary focus, the Watts Summer Festival would not be cancelled. Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records heard about the event and decided to dovetail with their event — Wattstax —featuring some of the biggest performers on their roster. We’re talking the Bar-Kays, Luther Ingram, the Staple Sisters, Rufus Thomas, and so on; if you know those names, then you’re in the right place. The event took place on August 20, 1972 to coincide with the anniversary of the Watts uprising and the 30th birthday of Stax Records’ biggest performer, Isaac Hayes (Truck Turner, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, “South Park” [TV-Comedy Central]).
What took place at the LA Memorial Coliseum that day and night was a celebration of Blackness, Black people, Black bodies, and Black music. Nearly everybody had an Afro (even the White people!) and love for the people of the Mother Continent was in full effect. It wasn’t just a funk or an R&B concert, because Stax Records wasn’t just those genres: gospel groups, soul singers, funk bands, blues musicians and more made their way to the stage to packed seats and floor. And based on the footage, it was packed with happy Black people showing and sharing love through their presence and music from mid-day to midnight.

IT’S AFROS ALL THE WAY BACK, BABY: In a sea of over 100,000 people, they were living in the moment under a beautiful late summer sun.

But it didn’t stop there: more footage of the concert was packaged into a documentary named after the Wattstax concert. Footage of everyday life in Watts was interspersed with actors discussing certain topics — I won’t spoil them here. In addition, more footage was filmed with comedy legend Richard Pryor discussing things in the humorous way only he could. With emcee duties handled by none other than Civil Rights legend Rev. Jesse Jackson and just a little production help from film pioneer Melvin van Peebles, it was an encouraging display of Afro-centric culture and pride for the people who had their hands on it…who was in it…and who watched it.

WAKE UP JESUS: R&B girl group the Emotions belts out “Peace Be Still” in a Watts church.

Of particular note were the everyday life segments. The long tail-finned 60’s cars and fashions from 10 years prior still everywhere clashing with newer skin-baring, shiny, funky, and Afro-centric looks pouring out of long 70’s cars, the diminished yet vibrant lives eked out of the bombed-out ghetto buildings — it was amazing. Based on what I saw you could set up a church in a box and produce amazing music with the right musical training. Though people still fall out in church regardless of the time period, because unfortunately not much has changed.
Speaking of things not changing, racism and race relations gets discussed A LOT and it’s in almost every skit. I get it; it’s barely a decade from the extensive Civil Rights murders and the Watts uprising and we haven’t moved on yet…but it got me wondering about the way things are. It was Black people pulling together a festival to pack it with the best musicians of the day — even the dude that made the Shaft soundtrack. The event footage filmed that day was turned into a documentary that was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1974. Everybody seemed to be having fun in the film footage, so why wasn’t it replicated again?

After a little bit of digging, I learned the “Black Woodstock” trend did not start or stop at Wattstax. More events took place and were visually documented for public consumption:

• the six-day 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which happened the same weekend as Woodstock (covered in the 1969 event film Black Woodstock and the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul by Questlove, the latter using recovered footage of the event)
• the 1971 Ghana Independence Day concert in Ghana (covered in the documentary Soul to Soul, released the same year)
• Zaire 74 — a three-day festival meant to accompany the legendary “Rumble in the Jungle” (covered in the 2009 documentary Soul Power)
• FESTAC 77, part of the ongoing World Festival of Black Arts (as documented by photographer Marilyn Nance)
• Atlanta-based Freaknik, a festival created by and for HBCU students in 1983 (the documentary is held up in legal limbo due to image rights from past attendees)
• a Brooklyn block party on the corner of Quincy and Downing Street in 2004, featuring the long-awaited reunion of the Fugees (covered in the 2005 documentary Dave Chapelle’s Block Party).
• Rock the Bells, a global hip-hop festival founded by Guerilla Union in 2004 (covered in the 2006 documentary Rock the Bells).

Barring the nearly 30-year gap between events where Black people could gather on film without issue (talk amongst yourselves as to why), we have a new potential contender for the next best “Black Woodstock” concert documentary: Rolling Loud. I urge the founders of Rolling Loud to make a documentary based on your festival—one of the biggest hip-hop festivals in the world. Put it on FATHOM Events if you have to, but make sure you get all the gritty stuff so we can look back and marvel at this historic time capsule in the far future. And make sure to get good segments to link the performances — there’s plenty of actors and comedians to go around! Whatever you do make sure to get image releases or set boiler-plate clauses about attendees and ticket purchasers waiving their image rights!

SONS OF A BAD MUTHA: Funk group the Bar-Kays performing “Son of Shaft” live on stage.

CHOICE CUTS:

• CAMEO: Ted Lange is one of the actors in the skits, long before he became Isaac the bartender from the 1977 sitcom “The Love Boat” [TV-ABC].
• Every time I saw a beautiful woman shaking and gyrating in skimpy clothes in the stands at Wattstax, I had to remind myself: that dancing machine is someone’s grandmother or great-grandmother now.
• We still have to tell little kids that they are somebody. Remember that.
• HONORABLE MENTION: Don’t think I forgot about the 1995 documentary The Show, featuring interviews and concert footage from rap performers like Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Naughty by Nature, ONYX, and even covered the Wu-Tang Clan on tour in Japan. Though a fascinating and in-depth contemporary look at the rap community, it did not present a singular event. GO WATCH IT ANYWAY.
• HONORABLE MENTION: The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival was started in 2005, but they don’t have a documentary yet. Based on what I’ve read about it, they really should.
• FUN FACT: In 1972, the LAPD had enough Black policemen at Wattstax to provide sufficient security for 112,000 people — the largest gathering of Black people outside of a Civil Rights event at the time.
• FUN FACT: Tickets to the 1972 Wattstax event were US$1.00. Yes, one American dollar — that’s $7.46 with inflation.
• Some of the greatest blues musicians of the 1980s had to start somewhere…and it seems they were all White high-school kids from the music club playing late nights at the Black venues.
• Yes, there is a night-club scene, and it does look like the stereotyped “pimps & hoes” parade. If that’s your thing, you’ll enjoy it.
• Three years after the Wattstax concert, Stax Records would be defunct.
• NWA’s “Easy-er Said than Dunn” uses a sample from Rufus Thomas’ “The Breakdown”.
• If anyone knows of any other large concert gatherings of Black people — just Black people living, not a protest march or protest gathering — filmed for mass consumption, please let me know.
• This movie was directed and produced by Jewish documentary film-maker Mel Stuart (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” [TV Movie-ABC]).