Renowned documentarian Robert Mugge showcases the art, the life, and the personality of the great African American poet-singer-songwriter-author Gil Scott-Heron, the man Melody Maker once called “the most dangerous musician alive” and many have dubbed the forefather of rap music. Perhaps the first production to utilize Steadicam from beginning to end, the film was shot entirely on location in Washington, D.C. at the Wax Museum Nightclub and on the streets of the city that Scott-Heron long considered his home.
“There are musicians whose work can’t easily be encapsulated by the documentary film format, and there are others, like Gil Scott-Heron, who make a particularly keen impression. BLACK WAX, which was adroitly directed by Robert Mugge, offers Mr. Scott-Heron a chance to explain his concerns and convictions at length, and he rises to the occasion.” –The New York Times
DIRECTED BY ROBERT MUGGE
UNITED STATES | 1983 | ENGLISH LANGUAGE
In 1976, Robert Mugge made his first film about American music, GEORGE CRUMB: VOICE OF THE WHALE, a strikingly original work about the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer. Notable for its innovative use of color, this documentary portrait includes a full-length performance by the Penn Contemporary Pl...
Decades ahead of his time, composer, keyboard player, bandleader, singer, poet, and philosopher Sun Ra coupled sci-fi images of outer space with those of ancient Egypt, acoustic instruments with electronic ones, and modern American musical genres (jazz, soul, gospel, blues, swing) with traditiona...
Music documentarian Robert Mugge follows the distinguished actor, musician and activist Rubén Blades to Harvard, where he gets his master’s degree in international law; to his old neighborhood in his native Panama; to Los Angeles for a recording session with Linda Ronstadt; and finally to New Yor...