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“My only sin is my skin.” The rhyme is one of the lyrics to the 1929 Fats Waller song “(What I Did To Be) Black and Blue,” which eloquently and memorably evokes experience of African Americans.
The talented jazz artist and entertainer Louis Armstrong recorded a version of the song. More importantly, he survived.
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Armstrong’s private feelings about the racism and insults he’s faced throughout his life Apple Original Movies Record Louis Armstrong’s black and bluedirected by sasha jenkinsThe film is based on private recordings made by the jazz trumpeter, including conversations with friends in which he speaks publicly about his experiences.
“He’s a technician, you could say, and he’s got a reel-to-reel tape recorder that he carries around, but it’s also prominent in the rec room at his house,” Jenkins said during an appearance on Deadline’s Contenders movie : Documentary awards season event. “He recorded conversations with himself and his wife, friends, and conversations with himself. And it’s very revealing.”
Jenkins added: “The media back then was not the same as it is today. There [wasn’t] YouTube or these platforms where artists can say what they want and do what they want.He is very visionary because he knows that one day his ideas and media will be of great value [of his time] Wouldn’t really give him a platform to really share his thoughts. So, it’s an astonishingly rich piece of material that’s the backbone of the film, the backbone of the film. ”
By using these recordings, the documentary dispels the illusion that Armstrong was by nature so cheerful that he had little to hide from the overt racism in the South or elsewhere in the country, including Hollywood, where Armstrong made many of his films. hurt by racism.
“In many ways, Louis has been portrayed in the media as a happy man full of energy and charisma who befriended a lot of white people and performed in front of white audiences,” the producers said Julie Anderson“What people don’t understand is that Louis knows exactly where he is. He exists somewhere between the black and white worlds. It’s the 40s and 50s, surviving into the 30s, Jim Crow.”
Armstrong walked a tightrope, not by choice, but by necessity, in black blues.
“Louis was one of the first black performers to start performing around the world … in front of white audiences — massive white audiences, not just little people,” Anderson said. “Being the first one puts a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and he knows he has to act a certain way to make things work. And I think because of this one-dimensional presentation of Louis, people think he doesn’t care about the black community, which is simply not the case. Really. He knows exactly where he’s coming from.”
In one vivid example, the film reveals that as Armstrong became more famous in America, he insisted that as long as he performed at a hotel, he had the right to spend the night at the venue. Without that rider, he would not be allowed to rest where he entertained.
“At the time, no one thought of this as a civil rights activism, which, in fact, it was,” Jenkins observed. “But 50 years on, to have some breathing room and really think about who he was, what he meant, what he meant, that’s a great thing.”
Check back Wednesday for the panel video.
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