/images/dot_clr.gif) Mr. SOUL! Ellis Haizlip
and the Birth of Black
Power TV
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| Melissa Haizlip |
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| Before Oprah --before Arsenio -- there was Mr. SOUL! At a time of deep racial turmoil, America's first "black Tonight Show" and it's charismatic producer gave radical voice to the struggles and successes of the black experience. |
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| Mr. SOUL! takes an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at SOUL!, the ground-breaking, Emmy award-winning variety/talk show which ran on public television from 1968 to 1973. Right on the heels of the Civil Rights movement, in the face of social upheaval and racial inequality, SOUL! accomplished an unprecedented feat; it made people aware of the black experience and launched the genre of “Black Power television.”
The documentary spans the five seasons of SOUL! from its genesis, development and success to its eventual loss of funding and cancellation, against the backdrop of a swiftly changing political and social landscape. The film illuminates the soul and groundbreaking work of Ellis Haizlip, the man behind one of the most successful and socially significant black-produced television shows in U.S. history.
SOUL! launched the careers of a staggering array of A-list guests: Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Al Green—even a 16 year-old Arsenio Hall doing magic tricks. Mr. SOUL! will intercut rare, electrifying footage from SOUL! with interviews with the show's original producers, guests and contemporary critics. Using two cameras, verité-style B-roll, archival footage and photographs, the 82-minute film will be shot on DVC Pro HD, with little to no narration. The mission of the film is not only to convey the significance of SOUL! but to provoke a dialogue about its relevance today. Who was this pioneering host who dared to create a vehicle to promote African American artistry, while presenting a forum for political expression and the fight for social justice? If diversity in programming and media reform are still current issues, then have we really made progress?
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| Melissa Haizlip (Direcctor / Producer) began her artistic career collaborating with her uncle Ellis Haizlip. After studying at Yale, Melissa performed on Broadway, danced with Gregory Hines, Mikhail Baryshnikov and in The Lion King. She later worked in development at the American Film Institute and as an independent casting director. Mr. SOUL! marks her debut as a documentary film director. Mark Page (Producer) has an extensive history as a producer on docs
for PBS and others, including many historical docs for George Lukas. Since graduating from Yale and receiving her M.F.A. from the American Film Institute, Elizabeth Massie (Associate Producer) has worked as a producer, director and writer for film and television. While serving on the board of the International Documentary Association, Brian Gerber (Associate Producer) has produced many docs, including Leonardo DiCaprio’s environmental feature doc THE 11th HOUR. Since graduating from Williams College and receiving her M.F.A. from the American Film Institute, Anne Etheridge (Director of Photography) has worked in the film industry as a producer and director of photography for documentaries, feature films and television. Louis Massiah (Advisor) is a MacArthur Fellow, Emmy award-winning independent documentary director / producer (EYES ON THE PRIZE II) and the founder and executive director of Scribe Video Center. www.scribe.org/
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| I’ve wanted to make this film for my entire life, having a deep personal connection to the story I’ve actually lived. Ellis Haizlip was my uncle; a huge inspiration to me and to many others. I was a little girl when Uncle Ellis moved into our Upper West Side home in New York City, around the time SOUL! was born. I remember eating oatmeal at midnight with my uncle and the guest stars he would bring home after taping the show. I would bask in the glow of all these intelligent, glamorous black people, mesmerized by my uncle’s coterie of magical friends. It would be years before I would learn that it was James Earl Jones who’d pinched my cheek, or the orphaned children of Malcolm X, whom Uncle Ellis was babysitting and brought over for a play date.
I feel compelled to document this story before so many of the master makers of American culture have passed on. Now is the time to bring into the spotlight this important chapter in the history of black America, and illuminate the enormous impact SOUL! continues to have to this day. Soul as a genre is here NOW, and here to stay, as evidenced by the enormous success of the recent VH1 documentary on SOUL TRAIN, which became VH1's highest rated "rock-doc" of all time.
WNET Channel 13, New York's PBS station that originally aired the series, has expressed interest in airing the film in time for the station’s upcoming 50th anniversary. Therefore our goal is to complete the film by September 2012.
The film is in preproduction. We are awaiting award notification from Fast Track 2010, Sundance Documentary Fund, ITVS Research and Development Funds, and the Chicken & Egg Pictures Grant. We are applying to Firelight Media Producers Lab, the National Black Programming Consortium Open Call and ITVS Open Call in the Fall. Significant in-kind donations plus our first entrepreneurial grant from CTFD have allowed us to shoot four interviews plus some B-roll. We have applied to IFP and hope to pitch our film at their Spotlight on Documentaries forum. We are developing a proposal to the Ford Foundation, who initially funded "SOUL!" with a sizable grant that launched the series in 1968.
The story unfolds with a total running time of 82 minutes without voice over narration. Since Haizlip is deceased, his voice will be summoned by voice over artist Keith David, while friends, family and colleagues will paint an intimate portrait of Haizlip.
The International Documentary Association provides our 501(c)(3) status under their Fiscal Sponsorship Program. Our goal is a TV release on PBS, followed by DVD distribution in the US and abroad. We’d like to link with WNET, to sell our DVD with tandem membership drives and marketing associated with their website devoted to content promoting the original show:
www.thirteen.org/soul
We will also target educational institutions, exploit social networking, develop our blog and sell our DVD on our own website:
www.mrsoulmovie.com
I intend to link the film to organizations committed to progressive social change, to create and refine audience engagement, and create a multi-platform, multi-year outreach campaign promoting the film’s articulation of black representation in media and the need for diverse voices on television. Media reform and democracy through social examination and change, on which the SOUL! series focused, is exactly what is sorely lacking in media today.
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