SUN RA: A JOYFUL NOISE
Special Features: Intro and post-show Q&A with filmmaker Robert Mugge, moderated by Richard Harrington, former music critic for The Washington Post. Mugge will sell/sign copies of his book, "Notes from the Road: A Filmmaker's Journey Through American Music".
Robert Mugge filmed Sun Ra and his Arkestra from 1978 through 1980 in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC, in order to edit together this acclaimed 60-minute portrait. In April of 2020, Richard Brody wrote in The New Yorker: "The prevalence of documentaries about musicians is a curse, because most of these films do a terrible job of showcasing music. One rare and moving exception is the work of the director Robert Mugge, whose film SUN RA: A JOYFUL NOISE — about the musician and bandleader whose multimedia and pan-cultural activities made him one of the prime artists of Afrofuturism — is one of the most satisfying musical portraits I've ever seen. The film's revelatory perspectives on Sun Ra's work arise not only from the filmmaker's analytical understanding of it, and the discussions that he films with Sun Ra and other members of the band, but also from his approach to filming music itself, in rehearsal and concert. With the movie's fusion of substance and style, the force of Sun Ra's passionate vision emerges, powerfully and movingly, along with the thrilling particulars of his music." In 2008, Time Out London named SUN RA: A JOYFUL NOISE one of the 50 Greatest Music Films Ever. DIR/PROD Robert Mugge. U.S., 1980, color, 60 min. NOT RATED
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 60 Minutes
Opening Date: Thursday, November 16, 2023
Genre: Documentary - music
