Tribeca Film Festival 2009 Mini-Preview: Documentaries

Muhammad Ali and George Foreman's 1974 fight in Kinshasa—the "Rumble in the Jungle"—was accompanied by a music festival called Zaïre 74, which brought together some of the best African-American and native African soul musicians—Soul Brother Number One, James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, Miriam Makeba, Celia Cruz, The Crusaders, Sister Sledge, and others—for three days of electrifying performances. The legendary Albert Maysles was just one of the documentary filmmakers and cameramen capturing all the onstage and backstage action, and after lying unedited for years, the footage, along with stellar audio recordings, has been crafted into the new documentary called Soul Power.

 

« PREVIOUS

Last week Executive Director Nancy Schafer talked us through some of the fun events happening during the festival, which include free stuff like the drive-in movies and the family street fair, the post-screening Q&A's with directors such as Spike Lee and Steven Soderbergh, and a "work in progress" premiere screening of the documentary, Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful.

Tickets went on sale Tuesday for American Express Cardmembers, who get first dibs on tickets through Saturday because Am Ex is a major festival sponsor. On Sunday, single tickets go on sale to downtown residents (below Canal) at the Tribeca Cinemas ticket outlet only, and on Monday they go on sale to the general public. All ticket details are here. Click on the film stills above for details on some of the intriguing documentary features at this year's festival.