Уоттстакс: Лос-Анджелестің дауысы мен естелігі

1973 benefit concert and film in Watts, Los Angeles, California

Wattstax was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African American community of Watts, Los Angeles. The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. The concert's performers included all of Stax's prominent artists at the time. The genres of the songs performed included soul, gospel, R&B, blues, funk, and jazz. Months after the festival, Stax released a double LP of the concert's highlights, Wattstax: The Living Word. The concert was filmed by David L. Wolper's film crew and was made into the 1973 film titled Wattstax. The film was directed by Mel Stuart and nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974. In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The 1973 documentary release of Wattstax includes, in addition to the festival sets by Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, the Staples Singers, the Bar Kays, and many others, musical performances by artists who were unable to perform during the actual Wattstax concert. The Emotions perform the gospel song "Peace Be Still" from the pulpit of the Friendly Will Baptist Church in Watts in a sequence shot several weeks after the Wattstax concert. Johnnie Taylor performs his 1971 hit single "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" onstage at the Summit Club in Los Angeles in a sequence filmed September 23, 1972. Little Milton performs "Walking the Streets and Crying" in a lip synced performance staged near train tracks adjacent to the Watts Towers. Rev. Jesse Jackson, head of Operation PUSH, was the MC of the Wattstax concert. Interspersed between the musical performances is documentary footage of the residents of Watts going about their daily lives, local businesses, as well as interview segments with Black Los Angelians. Rather than being fully candid, these segments feature actors discussing predetermined topics. Among these actors is Ted Lange, later one of the stars of the TV series The Love Boat.

As originally edited, the Wattstax film concluded with two performances by Isaac Hayes of hit songs from the motion picture Shaft: "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville." Following Wattstax's premiere on February 4, 1973, at the Los Angeles Music Center, but before its wide release in the United States, Stax Films and Wolper Films were informed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), producers and distributors of Shaft, that Wattstax could not be released with Hayes' performance numbers. MGM's contracts for the music in Shaft prevented any use of those songs in any other film until 1978. Wattstax was restored and remastered in 2003, using Apple's Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools to create new film and HD video elements from its original 16 mm film negatives. The original audio elements were used to create a new surround sound soundtrack and new stereo elements for soundtrack album releases. "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville" were restored to the film at this time as well. The restored film first played in limited release in the United States during the summer of 2003. In January 2004, the restored version of the film played at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by a theatrical reissue in June by Sony Pictures Repertory. In September 2004, the PBS series P. O. V. aired a new documentary about the concert and the movie. That same month, the movie was released on DVD by Warner Bros., which obtained the video rights when it purchased the Wolper library (Warner's former sister company, Warner Music Group, coincidentally owns the rights to most pre 1968 Stax recordings). Warner Bros. also acquired the distribution rights from Sony as a result of their ownership of the library of current copyright holder The Saul Zaentz Company.

Stax released Wattstax: The Living Word on January 18, 1973. The Living Word sold over 220,000 copies and a second two disc release, The Living Word: Wattstax 2, followed later that year. Wattstax 2 featured additional live performances from both the concert and related performances seen in the film, as well as studio tracks by other music artists and Richard Pryor. Coinciding with the preparation for the 2004 reissue of the film, Stax Records (by this time an imprint of Fantasy Records and later Concord Music Group) released the Wattstax: Music from the Festival and Film three disc collection, containing remastered versions of live performances from the Wattstax concert and the ancillary Los Angeles shows seen in the film. A 35th anniversary version was released in 2007. In 2004, Stax released Wattstax: Highlights from the Soundtrack, a single disc audio CD featuring only the songs included in the documentary film.