Standing in the Shadows of Motown
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Standing in the Shadows of Motown |
| Original title | Standing in the Shadows of Motown |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2002 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Justman |
| script |
Walter Dallas , Ntozake Shange |
| production | Paul Elliot, David Scott, Paul Justman, Allan Slutsky , Sandford Passman |
| music | Allan Slutsky |
| camera |
Douglas Milsome , Lon Stratton |
| cut | Anne Erikson |
Standing in the Shadows of Motown ( German In the shadow of Motown ) is an American documentary released in 2002 . It deals with the story of a group of session musicians called The Funk Brothers , which from the late 1950s until the early 1970s as a studio band for Motown , a Detroit Soul - record label , worked. Although the musicians recorded a number of hits as the backing band of many famous soul artists, they themselves had remained largely unknown for a long time.
Content and creation of the film
The book of the same name by “Dr.” served as a template for the film Standing in the Shadows of Motown . Licks ”(a pseudonym of the author Allan Slutsky ), which won the 1989 Rolling Stone / Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award . The title of the book and film is a reference to the song Standing in the Shadows of Love , which had previously been recorded for the Motown label by soul artists The Four Tops and The Jackson Five, among others .
Shot at the original location in Detroit (the “Motor Town” of the USA), the almost two-hour film also shows photos and footage of the musicians from The Funk Brothers who died earlier, as well as excerpts from a concert by the group with singers such as Chaka Khan and Ben Harper , Bootsy Collins , Montell Jordan , Joan Osborne or Gerald Levert . During this live performance, all of the great Motown hits on which members of the studio band had participated were played again by them. The film also documents what the individual musicians contributed to which song - The Funk Brothers had recorded more No. 1 hits as a band than the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , Elvis Presley and the Beach Boys combined.
It took more than ten years to shoot this film. Following a similar pattern to the film Buena Vista Social Club , this documentary created long-time Motown studio musicians Earl Van Dyke , Joe Hunter, Johnny Griffith, Eddie Willis, Joe Messina, Robert White, William Benjamin , Uriel Jones , Richard Allen , James Jamerson , Bob Babbitt , Jack Ashford Bass and Eddie Brown were first known to a broader musical audience.
Awards
The film won a total of four awards, including a Grammy in the “Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media” category .
Web links
- Standing in the Shadows of Motown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Standing in the Shadows of Motown at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Approval for Standing in the Shadows of Motown . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2004 (PDF; test number: 99 185 V / DVD).