The Museum of UnCut Funk continues to celebrate the best decade ever with a review of Poster Art from funky music based films that helped to create the soundtrack of the 1970’s.
To listen to the music from these soundtracks and others from the Blaxploitation era please visit our Blaxploitation Soundtracks section.
Soul to Soul – 1971
- Starring: Roberta Flack, Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, Carlos Santana, Staple Singers and many more.
- Tagline: America to Africa…Where It All Came From
- Plot: Footage of concert held in Ghana to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the independence of that country.
The Black Moses of Soul – 1973
- Starring: Isaac Hayes
- Tagline: The Superbad Music Event Of A Lifetime!
- Plot: One of the most distinctive artists in 1970’s soul music, Isaac Hayes delivers a powerful performance in this concert film, shot during a 1973 appearance in Atlanta, GA.
Save The Children – 1973
- Starring: Sammy Davis Jr., Roberta Flack, Marvin Gaye, Cuba Gooding, The Jackson 5, Jesse Jackson, Nancy Wilson, Bill Withers and many more.
- Tagline: The Giants Of The Music Explosion Came Together In A Jubilation Of Life!
- Plot: This concert documentary chronicles the many acts that appeared during Jesse Jackson’s Operation PUSH exposition held in 1972 in Chicago
Wattstax – 1973
- Starring: Isaac Hayes, Richard Pryor, Jesse Jackson, Staple Singers and many more.
- Taglines: Laugh! Cry! Sing! Hear! Feel! Dance! Shout!
- A soulful expression of the living word…
- Plot: This is a documentary about the 1972 Watts Summer Festival, which culminated in a day long concert at a sold out Los Angeles Coliseum. The concert was headlined by Isaac Hayes and the supporting acts included Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla, the Bar Kays and the Staple Singers. The film also features commentary by many Blacks on how things were in Watts since the riots that tore the city apart seven years earlier.
Space Is The Place – 1974
- Starring: Sun Ra
- Plot: With Black Power on the rise, Sun Ra disembarks and proclaims himself “the alter-destiny.” He holds a myth-vs reality rap session with Black inner-city youth at a recreation center, threatening “to chain you up and take you with me, like they did you in Africa” if they resist his plea to go to outer space. He duels at cards with The Overseer, a satanic overlord, with the fate of the Black race at stake. Ra wins the right to a world concert, which features great performance footage of the Arkestra. Agents sent by the Overseer attempt to assassinate Ra, but he vanishes, rescues his people, and departs in his spaceship from the exploding planet Earth.
That’s The Way of The World – 1975
- Starring: Harvey Keitel and Earth,Wind and Fire
- Tagline: There are two sides to every hit record!
- Plot: Record executives want a highly-regarded record producer to focus on a white pop act whom they feel has the sound America wants. To keep his creative integrity, Harvey Keitel aka Buckmaster carefully begins to fight the system that has made him the respected producer he has become.
Sparkle – 1976
- Starring: Lonette McKee, Irene Cara
- Tagline: From the ghetto to superstars
- Plot: Three sisters from Harlem become singers. Sister (Lonette McKee) becomes involved with drugs and Sparkle (Irene Cara) ends up getting famous. This movie tells about how drugs ruined Sister’s relationships and eventually ended her life. It is also about the relationship between Sparkle and Stix, played by Philip Michael Thomas.
The Wiz -1978
- Starring – Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Richard Pryor, Lena Horne and Mabel King
- Tagline: From the book that’s an American tradition…from the smash-hit Broadway show…the entertainment of the year!
- Plot: Twenty-four year old Dorothy – a kindergarten teacher born, raised and still working in Harlem, is celebrating Thanksgiving with her extended family. But she doesn’t seem to be thankful for much in life. She lives a self-imposed sheltered life; she is comfortable but unfulfilled. Things change for her when she is caught up in a snowstorm chasing after her dog, Toto. Dorothy and Toto are transported to the mysterious land of Oz. She is informed that the only possible way to find her way back to New York is through the assistance of the powerful wizard. As Dorothy goes searching for the wizard, she befriends some creatures who are facing problems in life just like her. In their quest to find and get help from the wizard, they also face Evillene, the equally evil sister of the wicked witch Dorothy inadvertently killed when she entered Oz and who may be their biggest obstacle in achieving their dreams.
* All of the Movie Poster Art (expect for Space Is The Place) is included in the Museum of UnCut Funk Collection.
