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''Wattstax'' is a 1973 concert film directed by Mel Stuart documenting the Watts Summer Festival. Organized by Stax Records, the concert took place on 20 August 1972 at the Los Angeles Colliseum and featured prominent Stax Records recording artists. The concert was a show of support for Watts, a predominantly African-American community of Los Angeles that had been been ravaged by rioting in 1965.〔http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_watts_rebellion_los_angeles_1965/〕 The film was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974. Stax released a double LP of concert highlights entitled ''Wattstax: The Living Word'' in 1972. ==The Concert== With a ticket price of $1.00 for 8 continuous hours of music by major Soul/R&B artists, the Watts Summer Festival drew a crowd of 110,000 people. Performers included The Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, and the concert closed with Isaac Hayes, whose 30th birthday coincided with the event.. The Staples Singers performed "Respect Yourself" and "I'll Take You There," both high-charting hits of 1972. Hayes performed the "Theme from Shaft" and "Ain't No Sunshine." Despite the prominence of his name in the film's publicity, much of performance was cut from the theatrical release of the film. Following the model set by the concert films ''Woodstock'' and ''Gimme Shelter'' (both 1970), Stuart cuts back and forth between audience and stage, giving near equal time to the crowd. The film highlights politically-charged moments of the event, including the opening performance of the Star-Spangled Banner by Kim Weston, during which the audience remained seated and a rousing speech by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, which brought the crowd to its feet. The film records Rufus Thomas's confrontation with members of the audience who scaled the security fence to climb on stage. Stuart was dissatisfied wth the concert footage. To compensate for heavy cuts to the musical segments, Stuart added footage shot in and around Watts and hired Richard Pryor to introduce the film and provide comic interludes. The film begins with Pryor's introduction, which is immediately followed by scenes of urban life in Watts (including shots of local landmark Watts Towers), accompanied by the song "What You See Is What You Get" by The Dramatics. The Staples Singers performance of "Oh La De Da" was intercut with images of the various artists arriving by plane from Memphis, where Stax Records was based. The film's premiere on 3 February 1973 at the Ahmanson Theater in the Los Angeles Music Center, was attended by Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jack Benny, Red Foxx, Warren Beatty, Edgar Bergen and Candace Bergen, Fred Astaire, and Francis Ford Coppola. Pryor, Hayes and Thomas made appearances as well. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wattstax」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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