Choosing the Mississippi River to symbolize their odyssey, French writer Claude Fléouter and Greek director Robert Manthoulis duly chronicle here the transformation of the rural blues into an urban idiom. From the poetic improvisations of Robert Pete Williams in Louisiana to the electric intensity of the Buddy Guy and Junior Wells duet in Chicago, Fléouter and Manthoulis treat us with a rare glimpse into the everyday reality of the blues at a time when precious few images of its artists were available.

A pioneering effort when it came out in the early 1970's, this unique film depicts a crucial chapter in the history of this music. At the turn of the seventies, the rock wave had somewhat popularized the genre with mainstream audiences, but fans in America as well as in Europe still had to see with their own eyes Black blues artists in their natural environment. An environment that was undergoing deep changes, in the industrial North where blues was repudiated by Black Power activists, in the South where the weight of apartheid was still palpable, despite the repeal of Jim Crow laws.

Brushing aside the distrust of ghetto militants...

Choosing the Mississippi River to symbolize their odyssey, French writer Claude Fléouter and Greek director Robert Manthoulis duly chronicle here the transformation of the rural blues into an urban idiom. From the poetic improvisations of Robert Pete Williams in Louisiana to the electric intensity of the Buddy Guy and Junior Wells duet in Chicago, Fléouter and Manthoulis treat us with a rare glimpse into the everyday reality of the blues at a time when precious few images of its artists were available.

A pioneering effort when it came out in the early 1970's, this unique film depicts a crucial chapter in the history of this music. At the turn of the seventies, the rock wave had somewhat popularized the genre with mainstream audiences, but fans in America as well as in Europe still had to see with their own eyes Black blues artists in their natural environment. An environment that was undergoing deep changes, in the industrial North where blues was repudiated by Black Power activists, in the South where the weight of apartheid was still palpable, despite the repeal of Jim Crow laws.

Brushing aside the distrust of ghetto militants and the open hostility of redneck police officers, Fléouter and Manthoulis lead us into a breathtaking tour of Black America, from New Orleans to Chicago, from California to Virginia. Along the way, we attend a friendly musical battle between Bukka White and Furry Lewis, we sit right next to Texas sharecropper Mance Lipscomb as he evokes the story of his life, we hitch a ride with B.B. King on his way to a chitlin circuit gig, we rediscover Elvis's first inspirator, Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, we cross paths with Willie Dixon, Roosevelt Sykes, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, .

In a poignant moment, this musical trip also takes up inside the Texas State Farm at Sugar Land and the Rikers Island prison in New York: from yesterday's chain gang to today's penal plant, the urgency of the blues appears in its most dramatic light. "We've always been very proud of this film," Manthoulis and Fléouter confess. Seeing it today, one can only say that they have every right to be.

A Film documentary by Claude Fléouter and Robert Manthoulis

Directed by Robert Manthoulis

(Shrink Text)