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The Grammy Award-winning
ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock has been performing for the
past 30
years.
Photo by Dwight Carter. |
The Voice of 'Sweet Honey'
and In Brief: 'Shake Hands
with the Devil'
By Esther
Iverem
SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic
Talk
about these movies and Black film issues! Click here.
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In
Brief:
"Shake Hands with the Devil": The 1994 genocide of Rwanda, which left nearly
one million dead in three months, will forever haunt Lt.
Gen. Romeo Daillaire, who was in charge on UN forces in the
country during that time. As much as this documentary details
Daillaire's inability to stop the carnage—which
is graphic, it also details the failure of his own agency
and the international community to step in while the madness
might have been averted. More than "Hotel Rwanda" or "Sometimes
in April," "Shake Hands with the Devil" also
documents Belgium's history of colonialism and fomenting
of ethnic strife that fueled this horrific chapter in Africa's
history.—Iverem
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It is impossible to experience Sweet Honey in the Rock in concert
and not be transported to that place where we are all human, primal,
in possession of common sense, and hauntingly beautiful. It is
these moments of communion and revelation that Stanley Nelson ably
captures in his documentary, "Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise
Your Voice" which airs on PBS, beginning on June 29, as a
part of the "American Masters" series. (Check your
local listings.)
It's 84 minutes are, first and foremost, a fan's homage,
a love letter from someone in Sweet Honey's extended family.
The group's fans all over the world feel drawn to its a cappella
messages of social justice and healing, just as the spiritually
weary are drawn to a revival. With generous stretches of concert
footage and behind-the-scenes moments, Nelson has created an alter "music
video" that stars women who mine deeply the many traditions
of Black music. Their outfits are colorful and fabulous. The sound
quality of the concerts seems to improve as the filming goes along,
and allows us to hear each individual voice, as well as the earthy
harmony for which the group is known.
If there is any shortcoming in the film, it is that it does not
give us an up close portrait of Bernice Johnson Reagon, the group's
demanding and often acerbic founder. We do learn of her fascinating
early development as a composer and song leader in what she has
described as the 19th century Southwest Georgia choral tradition,
and we do see her in vintage footage as a primary creator of the
soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement. She was a member of the
SNCC Freedom Singers that sang at the 1963 March on Washington,
and, using traditions she learned growing up as the daughter of
a church pastor in Albany. Ga., she helped to unify civil rights
marchers by having them sing songs that married familiar church
melodies to new words of resistance.
This film would have also provided a fuller portrait of the group
with voices of former Sweet Honey members; 22 different women have
passed through the group. Reagon tells her story in her 1993 book, "We
Who Believe in Freedom— Sweet Honey in the Rock...Still on
the Journey" (Anchor Books).
The group sings spirituals, civil rights anthems, traditional
African songs, wordless but overpowering vocal harmonizing, and
original songs that have become classics, such as "JoAnn
Little," a song about a Black woman who was acquitted in
1975 of killing the White jailer who had raped her. The film captures
this activism through art, including Reagon's inspirational
concert talks, as much as it does the aesthetics of the group.
The members of the group during the time of this filming, Aisha
Kahlil, Shirley Childress Saxton, Carol Maillard, Nitanju Bolade
Casel, Ysaye Maria Barnwell and founder Bernice Johnson Reagon,
have matured with it. Some have streaks of silver in their hair;
the snow white short afro of Barnwell frames the rich dark brown
of her rounded face. We meet the Maillard's son, who is dressing
up for a high school prom. We watch Maillard transform from worldly
and seasoned artist into a mom, as she yells to her son and his
friends in the departing limo: "No sex, no drugs, no alcohol!"
Shot over four years, the film also documented the recent transition
of the group, which was founded in 1973, as it faced the departure
of Reagon, and held auditions for a replacement, which turned out
to be two new members, Louise Robinson and Arnae. Sweet Honey is
named for named the Psalms 81:16 scripture that speaks of people
of being fed honey from a rock; the name has since become emblematic
of not only the strength and sweetness of the group, but also of
the world of Black women who they represent. This film certainly
conveys that duality.
"Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice" was
screened at the SilverDocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary
Festival in
Silver Spring, Md. This review also appeared on www.BET.com.
Related Sites:
— July 1, 2005
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2001-05 Seeing Black, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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