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The Soul of a Man

Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence (recreations of '20s and '30s events - shot in silent-film, hand-crank style), rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.

Top Cast

  • Laurence Fishburne

    Laurence Fishburne

    Self - Narrator

  • Chris Thomas King

    Chris Thomas King

    Blind Willie Johnson

  • Keith B. Brown

    Keith B. Brown

    Skip James

  • J.B. Lenoir

    J.B. Lenoir

    Self (archive footage)

  • Skip James

    Skip James

    Self (archive footage)

  • T Bone Burnett

    T Bone Burnett

    Self

  • John Mayall

    John Mayall

    Self (archive footage)

  • Lucinda Williams

    Lucinda Williams

    Self

  • Bonnie Raitt

    Bonnie Raitt

    Self

Overview

Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence (recreations of '20s and '30s events - shot in silent-film, hand-crank style), rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.

Rating

6.6 / 10
23 Reviews
0 Popular

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