Thirty years after its original release, Wattstax - the movie about the "black Woodstock" - is returning to theatres.

The documentary of the historic 1972 concert, which featured an all-star lineup of Stax Records stars and commenmorated the 1965 Watts Riots, will be in selected cities June 6. It will go to more screens throughout the summer.

Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Repertory has digitally remasterd Wattstax - The Special Edition with a never-before-seen ending that includes Isaac Hayes performing The Theme From Shaft and Soulsville.

The 104-minute film, edited from a seven hour concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum attended by 110,000 people was headlined by Luther Ingram featuring Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays, Little Milton, Johnnie Taylor, The Emotions, Albert King, and the Rance Allen Group. Interspersed with the music are candid interviews with black Los Angeles residents and comedy bits from Richard Pryor.

Stax Records has been getting alot of attention lately. In addition to this film and its prominence in Only the Strong Survive, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music opened on the label's old site in Memphis last month.

'Only the Strong Survive' gets to the heart of soul

By Steve Jones
USA TODAY
Wednesday, May 28, 2003

When Jerry Butler teamed with the famed production duo Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff to write Only the Strong Survive in 1969, they were inspired by artists who had proved their staying power.

More than 30 years later, Butler is featured in a documentary that takes its name from his signature song and pays homage to his legendary contemporaries who have kept going long after the hits stopped.

Filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus (Moon Over Broadway, The War Room) and journalist Roger Friedman set out in the summer of 1999 to shine the spotlight on these R&B stars who largely had faded from mainstream view. The stories of Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Mary Wilson, Sam Moore, The Chi-Lites, Ann Peebles and Butler are sometimes poignant, often funny and inevitably uplifting. The film is in New York, Los Angeles and other top-10 markets.

For most, the recognition is long overdue, but Carla Thomas says that it gives them a second chance to return to the limelight. The film focuses largely on the Memphis sound but touches on Detroit and Chicago soul and is dedicated to her father, Rufus Thomas. The wit and ageless enthusiasm of the other King of Memphis is felt throughout.

Thomas, who died in December 2001 at age 84, shortly after the film was completed, creates several side-splitting moments with his chatter on his WDIA radio show and reveals that the "world's oldest teenager" still had it with hilarious Walking the Dog. His daughter and sometimes duet partner, in fine voice on her hits Gee Whizand B-A-B-Y, joins him in what turned out to be one of their last performances together on Night Time Is the Right Time.

Though Thomas infuses the film with a certain lightheartedness, it is Moore who provides its emotional center. As part of the duo Sam & Dave, he had a string of hits in the 1960s: You Don't Know Like I know, Hold On! I'm Coming, Soul Man and more. But by the early '70s, he was strung out on drugs. With the help of his wife, Joyce, he has been clean for 20 years and has resurrected his career. For the past decade, they've been fighting the record industry for fully funded pensions for artists. Still, his discussion of his drug years illustrates how far a star can fall.

"I wanted people to know that that's what it's all about - surviving," says Moore, whose powerful When Something Is Wrong With My Baby is one of the film's highlights. "It's being able to go through all the things - positive or negative, right or wrong - and come out and do what you do best."

His story contrasts with that of Butler, a Cook County commissioner in Chicago since 1985. The Iceman says he had his share of career peaks and valleys, but he still performs frequently in addition to carrying out his governmental duties. He says documentaries like this one and last year's Standing in the Shadows of Motown show there will always be love for R&B.

"Like country music, it's a music of the people and only gets submerged when the new marketing to the new culture pushes it down," Butler says.

"But the songs talk about life and the pursuit of happiness, usually one-on-one, and that is what all societies are built upon. As long as songwritiers speak to that, there will always be room for them in the hearts and minds of people."

Among surprises in Only the Strong Survive are seeing the notoriously testy Wilson "The Wicked" Pickett in a humorous mood, and Mary Wilson relishing singing lead on old Supremes hits. Wilson also proudly reveals that she is studying writing at New York University. The Chi-Lites laughingly recall forgetting to sing years ago when they stepped on stage and audiences went wild over their costumes.

Hayes says the documentary is important because it helps preserve a musical legacy that often is obscured by the attention paid these days to hip-hop. Younger artists should know, he says, on whose shoulders they stand.

Though he is popularly known for Shaft, the film points out Hayes' great impact as a songwriter and arranger, along with David Porter, on the careers of such stars as Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and others.

"So many of us die paupers after all we've contributed to this art," Hayes says.  "We have to just hash it out and find our way.  Some of us do, and some don't."