Mr. SOUL!:
From 1968 to 1973, the public television variety show SOUL!, guided by the enigmatic producer and host Ellis Haizlip, offered an unfiltered, uncompromising celebration of Black literature, poetry, music, and politics—voices that had few other options for national exposure, and, as a result, found the program an improbable place to call home. The SOUL! series was among the first to provide expanded images of African Americans on television, shifting the gaze from inner-city poverty and violence to the vibrancy of the Black Arts Movement. With a bevy of great archival clips, the film features interviews with filmmakers Louis Maissiah and Thomas Allen Harris, poets Felipe Luciano, The Last Poets, and Sonia Sanchez, musicians Harry Belafonte, Quest Love, and Novella Nelson, activists Kathleen Cleaver and Kevin Powell, and writers Christopher Lukas, Alvin F. Poussaint, and Greg Tate. Their commentaries and analysis help to frame and capture a critical cultural moment whose impact continues to resonate.