1973 benefit concert and film in Watts, Los Angeles, California
Wattstax
Theatrical poster
Directed by
Mel Stuart
Produced by
Larry Shaw Mel Stuart
Starring
The Staple Singers Richard Pryor Carla Thomas Rufus Thomas Luther Ingram Kim Weston Johnnie Taylor The Bar-Kays Isaac Hayes Albert King
Cinematography
John A. Alonzo
Production companies
Stax Films Wolper Pictures
Distributed by
Columbia Pictures
Release date
February 4, 1973 (1973-02-04)
Running time
103 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Box office
$1,560,000 (rentals)[1]
Wattstax was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles.[2][3] The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. The concert's performers included all of Stax's prominent artists at the time. The genres of the songs performed included soul, gospel, R&B, blues, funk, and jazz. Months after the festival, Stax released a double LP of the concert's highlights, Wattstax: The Living Word. The concert was filmed by David L. Wolper's film crew and was made into the 1973 film titled Wattstax. The film was directed by Mel Stuart and nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974.
In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
^"Big Rental Films of 1973". Variety, January 9, 1974. pg 60.
^Maycock, James (19 July 2002). "Loud and Proud". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
^Kennedy, Gerrick (18 August 2015). "Perspective: Remembering the 1972 Wattstax concert brings us to crucial voices of Kendrick Lamar, Prince". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
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