By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Any music fan who missed the earlier screening this week of the rare and valuable film “The Blues Under The Skin” gets another chance Thursday. It’s being shown for a final time in a rare afternoon screening at the Belcourt. It was a classic work by filmmaker Roviros Manthoulis, despite the casual blurring at times of straight documentary fact and fictional cinematic encounters.
The fictional portion spotlighted a turbulent relationship between a young couple (Onike Lee, Roland Sanchezz) battling the dual obstacles of racism and poverty that are preventing them from being a happy couple. That element is balanced against the actual interviews Manthoulis conducted and the great performances he filmed during his trip to the Mississippi Delta in the early ‘70s.
It was a period when there was a resurgence of interest in that music, and Manthoulis was able to either interview or film in concert a host of legends, among them B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Mance Lipscomb, Bukka White and Roosevelt Sykes. His goal was to simultaneously depict intimate performance while also revealing the emotional and sociopolitical factors behind the music and the motivations and life histories of the artists.
“The Blues Under The Skin” will air Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. The Belcourt is located at 2102 Belcourt Avenue.
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