Last night was the opening of Silverdocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival. This is the fifth annual festival and it seems to have a robust schedule, with 100 films from 40 countries.
The opening film was Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, directed by Jim Brown, who also did The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time (1982) and other folkie tribute films.
Of course, Seeger was in the Weavers and rode the rails with Woody Guthrie and has generally dedicated his life to progressive causes. The film manages to suggest that Seeger’s life choices have not always been easy on his family. Having mostly heard of Seeger for political reasons, I was greatly impressed by his musicianship. Basically, I’ve never sat and listened to a bunch of his music and I was blown away by his playing and his lovely, gentle voice.
Seeger was hauled in HUAC and later blacklisted because of his membership in the Communist Party, an organization he had parted ways with in the late Forties. He still refused to take any loyalty oaths and paid a big price. Ironically, it left him playing for young people, at summer camps and on college campuses, which then paved the way for the big Folk Revival of the Sixties.
After the film, the audience was treated to a number of musical performances. Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Pete’s grandson, was there with the group The Mammals, including bandmates Ruth Ungar and Michael Merenda. They were then joined by Tom Paxton for a song. Legend Odetta sang an a capella number from a wheelchair at the front of the theater; she reduced the place to absolute silence. Finally, Dr. Ysaye Maria Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock led the audience in a sing-a-long, which was very fitting for a Seeger tribute.
One of the most famous moments from Seeger’s career was when he appeared on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967 to sing a Vietnam protest song called “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.” CBS cut the performance out of the program, but after much struggle, he was able to do it on air a year later. I’d never actually seen this performance and it electrified the audience in the theater last night, probably due to the incredible parallels to Iraq. As the song finished, the audience burst into applause.
UPDATE: Here are some photos. Photo one is (L-R) Ruth Ungar, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Tom Paxton, and Michael Merenda. Photo two is Odetta. Photo three is Dr. Barnwell.
Tags: Silverdocs, Pete Seeger, Jim Brown, documentaries