Black Film of the Week: STILL BILL (2009)
Directed by Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
Why: A favorite film of the staff, we had the documentary “Still Bill” on our list, but with the passing of its subject, legendary soul singer Bill Withers, we had to move this up.
“Still Bill” is easily one of the best music documentaries you’ll ever see.
Covering the history of this passionate man, who before he broke into music served in the Navy and then made toilets for airplanes, the film charts his rise in the business and his decisions to leave it, to his life as an aged musician working to maintain a good relationship with his wife and children, specifically his daughter Kori, who is a burgeoning singer/songwriter like her pops.
What Baker, who you may also know from his personal docu “The House on Coco Road”, and Vlack are able to do here is connect the audience with a man we think we know through his songs, but because he was never as mainstream as a Marvin Gaye nor stayed in the music business too long, we don’t truly know - but by midway through the film will fall further in love with. Don’t get it twisted though, the music does make this film rise to the top, entrancing audiences into Bill’s life.
For many of us that didn’t grow up in the early 70’s, through interviews with Bill, if you watched this film in its first run it was probably the first time you saw footage from the PBS show “Soul” and its host/producer Ellis Haizlip, whose own dynamic life, as well as the show’s, was recently covered in the documentary “Mr. Soul”. There are also cameos from Cornel West, Sting, Corey Glover, and “The Black Godfather” Clarence Avant.
“Still Bill” is a soul-stirring yet calming turn into Bill Withers’ life that you must see. You can rent “Still Bill” on iTunes for a small fee.
