Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney's Finding Fela! profiles Nigerian music superstar Fela Kuti (1938-1997), using as a structuring device Bill T. Jones's off-Broadway production Fela!, which introduced Kuti to new listeners some 12 years after his death. Gibney divides the narrative between archival material, behind-the-scenes footage, and new interviews. Kuti's son, Femi, talks about his father's time in London, where he studied classical music by day and jazz by night. Jones says he chose to build a musical around Kuti because of the latter's contradictions. As he puts it, Kuti was both a synthesizer and a visionary, whose songs—which combined funk and highlife—inspired dancing even while railing against government corruption and police brutality (in the stage production, Kuti is played by Sahr Ngaujah, who doesn't look much like his real-life counterpart, but performs key tracks with the requisite vigor). Drummer Questlove (the Roots) also praises Kuti's musical director, Tony Allen, who would become a star in his own right. As Kuti's fame grew, he built a compound for his friends, associates, and 27 wives. This all-inclusive environment, however, left his children feeling like faces in the crowd. As Jones points out, Kuti sprang from powerful female ancestors, yet he believed that women should defer to him (he also succumbed to the charms of a guru who looks like a huckster in hindsight). Gibney concludes by looking at Kuti's final years; dying of AIDS, he refused to either acknowledge the disease or seek treatment. For better and for worse, Kuti never compromised his beliefs. A powerful profile of a key figure in African music, this is recommended. (K. Fennessy)
Finding Fela!
Kino Lorber, 120 min., not rated, DVD: $29.95, Blu-ray: $34.95, Jan. 13 Volume 30, Issue 1
Finding Fela!
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