The Soul of a Man
2003
103 minutes
Overview
In "The Soul of A Man," director Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence (recreations of '20s and '30s events - shot in silent-film, hand-crank style), rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.
Top Cast
Laurence Fishburne
Self - Narrator
Chris Thomas King
Blind Willie Johnson
Keith B. Brown
Skip James
J.B. Lenoir
Self (archive footage)
Skip James
Self (archive footage)
T Bone Burnett
Self
John Mayall
Self (archive footage)
Lucinda Williams
Self
Bonnie Raitt
Self
Marc Ribot
Self
Cassandra Wilson
Self