Amazing ‘Soul’ Story Brings the Funk by Kim Hughes on Feb 1, 2011 0 Comments



There is appointment viewing, and then there is Thunder Soul, among the very best documentaries ever made no matter what your criteria - most inspirational story, best reminder that people can be really awesome, best way to spend 83 minutes, most righteous funk extravaganza ever committed to film.

Not for nothing did this terrific film score the Hot Docs Audience Award last year; director Mark Landsman went on to win audience awards at festivals in Los Angeles, Dallas, Aspen and Memphis.

The Thunder Soul story is truly amazing. Conrad "Prof" Johnson composed original funk songs and arranged stylin’ stage antics with Houston’s Kashmere High School Stage Band. He became the first black high school bandleader with an all-black high school band to win the Texas state championship in the 1970s.

Johnson’s supremely motivational attitude made the group unstoppable, leading them to win 42 out of 46 contests over the course of the decade and establishing them as international funk legends with tours in Paris and Japan.

Oh, and it bears repeating: these were high school kids! Thunder Soul combines archival footage of the kids in action with the band members' recent reunion interspersed with loads of interviews with the original band members who credit their adult achievements with the inspiration they received at Kashmere High under the tutelage of Prof Johnson.

Thunder Soul really is one of a kind, and as its L.A.-based director explains in advance of its screening Wednesday [[February 2) at Toronto’s Bloor Cinema - where Mark Landsman will intro the film and field audience questions afterward - its impact is extending far beyond the cinema.

Hollywood North: How did you find out about this story in the first place?

Mark Landsman: I first heard about this story on National Public Radio. I was listening in my office one day when this huge wall of sound came through the speakers. I assumed it was the James Brown Band or some monster funk band from the early 1970s. The announcer came on and said, ‘Can you believe these are 14- and 15-year old high school kids from Houston Texas circa 1971?’

When I heard that, I got chills. I thought, ‘What an amazing story.’ They sounded like professionals. And then their teacher, Conrad ‘Prof’ Johnson - who was 90-years-old at the time - came on the air and started describing the story of the band and how they were the first all-black band to integrate into these high school festival circuits back in the 70s and how they triumphed. And I just thought it would make an extraordinary film.

So I Googled Conrad Johnson; four came up in the Houston phone book. I phoned the first one and said ‘I think I am listening to you on the radio right now’ and the guy on the other end said, ‘No, you’re listening to my father. This is Conrad Jr.’ I told him who I was and what I was thinking and he gave me his dad’s phone number.

HN: Without giving too much of the plot away, it’s fair to say that the planets really aligned, timing-wise, as you were making this film.

ML: As a documentary filmmaker, life is your script and you never really know what it’s going to throw you. A number of truly extraordinary things happened during the course of filming and throughout the process, I literally turned to my collaborators and said, ‘There’s a higher hand here.’ The timing of events was uncanny and things happened that we could never, ever have planned.’ It became almost a running joke… how is this happening?

HN: So was your film the catalyst for the reunion of the Kashmere High School Stage Band or was it already planned and underway?

ML: I went down to Houston thinking I was going to pitch Prof a fictionalized film based on his life. After I got his phone number from his son, I was so nervous I waited a week to call him. When I finally did call him, he said, ‘What’s wrong with you, man? I’ve been waiting all week for your call!’ I was sure everyone in the world was calling this guy and here he was waiting to hear from me. So I got on a plane literally two weeks later to meet him.

When I got down there, a couple of the guys who were organizing the reunion took me aside and said, ‘Prof isn’t really aware of this yet, but we are organizing this reunion for him. He’s getting up in age, we’re getting up in age, so we’re going to do this reunion. What do you think?’ And I said, ‘I think we have a documentary.’ I went back to L.A., discussed making the documentary with these financiers and we were off. But the reunion was already on and it just so happened that our paths converged.

HN: The film pretty clearly demonstrates that music education is a powerful and positive thing deserving of funding and support. Have you seen any evidence that your film has brought that message home to U.S. educators?

ML: I can’t say I’ve seen evidence of that but the very exciting news is that the U.S. Department of Education has requested to see the film. That’s a tremendous honour. Plus a number of national arts advocacy organizations have expressed interest in partnering with us and using the film as a tool in their advocacy. We’re very happy that the film can make headway into educational markets and can hopefully influence policy on arts and music education.

HN: Does it surprise you that a black filmmaker didn’t get to this story first?

ML: That’s very hard for me to answer. I feel like stories find their storytellers. It’s a combination of right place, right time but also right story, right storyteller.

HN: You are doing an audience Q&A after Wednesday’s screening in Toronto. In the past what types of questions have typically come up in those settings?

ML: Questions about the musicians and logistics of the filming. People get very excited about the music. The band actually has a lot of cachet among collectors and DJs. The questions are really varied because the audiences are really varied. We’ve had middle school kids in our audience and we’ve had grandmothers. That’s been such an amazing thing to see - how this movie affects so many different people. I have been floored by the reaction we have had to this film.

Thunder Soul screens as part of the Doc Soup monthly series Wednesday, February 2, at 6:30 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at Toronto’s Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West.

Filmmaker Mark Landsman will be in attendance to introduce the film and answer audience questions following the screening. Single tickets are $12 and can be purchased in advance at www.hotdocs.ca or at the door on the night of the screening [[subject to availability).

A limited number of free tickets for the 9:15 p.m. screening will be available to students with proper ID [[subject to availability) at the door, on a first-come first-served basis beginning at 5:30 p.m.