• Film

The Blues A Musical Journey: Warming by the Devil's Fire

Advertising

Time Out says

Writer/director Charles Burnett offers a slice of childhood autobiography, a summer away from his god-fearing West Coast family spent in the company of his louche-living Mississippi uncle Buddy. Expecting a baptism of the gospel variety, he's instead inducted into the way of sex and the blues. It's a languorous, even listless piece of storytelling that stands almost entirely on Burnett's dreamy parade of archive performers. Son House, Willie Dixon, WC Handy and a notably strong selection of women (Ida Cox, Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith) flit by, haunted spirits now doing the haunting.

Release Details

  • Duration:89 mins

Cast and crew

  • Director:Charles Burnett
  • Screenwriter:Charles Burnett
  • Cast:
    • Tommy Hicks
    • Nathaniel Lee Jr
    • archival performances Son House
    • Sister Rosetta Tharpe
    • Mississippi John Hurt
    • Victoria Spivey
    • Willie Dixon
    • Muddy Waters
    • Ida Cox
    • Mamie Smith
    • Lightnin' Hopkins
    • Reverend Gary Davis
    • Big Bill Broonzy
    • WC Handy
    • Sonny Boy Williamson
    • Bessie Smith
    • Carl Lumbly
Advertising
You may also like
You may also like