STAX/CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT DOCUMENTARY SCREENED IN BARCELONA!

Pictured at top, David Moreu and Valencia Robinson with students of The Soulsville Charter School at a special screening of "Down to Earth."

Last week, a new short film by Spanish journalist and filmmaker David Moreu was screened at the Barcelona Blues & Boogie Festival to rave reviews. This was all the result of one email in the summer of 2007.

David Moreu emailed us looking for a photograph of Booker T. & the MGs for an article he was working on and after much correspondence, he eventually ended up traveling to Memphis in November 2007 to cover the Stax Museum during our Stax 50th Anniversary celebration. While here, he conducted interviews with many people for several articles he later published in the Spanish press. But he interviewed his subjects on film.

After a lot of hard work in the editing room, Moreu finally finished "Down to Earth," a 30-minute documentary about Memphis and the Civil Rights Movement and its relation to soul music, particularly that of Stax Records. The film includes interviews with former Stax Records publicity director and former Soulsville CEO Deanie Parker; Stax songwriter and recording artist David Porter; Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, who was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he was assassinated there in 1968; Memphis-based soul singer Valencia Robinson; Hi Records legend Willie Mitchell; and various barbers and beauticians from the Soulsville, USA community.

The film had been screened only once before, privately at the Stax Music Academy for special guests and students from The Soulsville Charter School. The Barcelona screening was the first public screening, and we hope there are many more!