- Cry of Jazz
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Cry of Jazz Directed by Ed Bland Produced by Ed Bland, Nelam Hill Screenplay by Ed Bland , Nelam Hill, Mark Kennedy, Eugene Titus Music by Sun Ra Release date(s) 1959 Running time 34 minutes Country USA Language English Cry of Jazz is a film by Ed Bland documenting Chicago's black neighborhoods. It includes interviews with artists and intellectuals and performances by Sun Ra and John Gilmore. In 2010, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Library of Congress had this to say of the film and it's significance, " Cry of Jazz...is now recognized as an early and influential example of African-American independent filmmaking. Director Ed Bland, with the help of more than 60 volunteer crew members, intercuts scenes of life in Chicago’s black neighborhoods with interviews of interracial artists and intellectuals. "Cry of Jazz" argues that black life in America shares a structural identity with jazz music. With performance clips by the jazz composer, bandleader and pianist Sun Ra and his Arkestra, the film demonstrates the unifying tension between rehearsed and improvised jazz. "Cry of Jazz" is a historic and fascinating film that comments on racism and the appropriation of jazz by those who fail to understand its artistic and cultural origins."
References
External links
- Cry of Jazz at the Internet Movie Database
- Cry of Jazz at AllRovi
- Cry of Jazz page at Ed Bland's webpage
Categories:- English-language films
- 1959 films
- American films
- Black-and-white films
- Documentary films about jazz music and musicians
- Short films
- United States National Film Registry films
- Jazz stubs
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