Written by Melissa Haizlip
Directed by Melissa Haizlip and Sam Pollard
Featuring Ellis Haizlip, Nikki Giovanni, James Baldwin and just about everybody else that mattered in the Black Arts Movement in the early 70s
Running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Unrated-contains discussion of sexuality and racial violence as well as strong language in relation to those topics

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

Mr. Soul! has been on my radar for a couple years now. Melissa Haizlip has been working to bring this documentary about her uncle’s life and his ground-breaking and influential television program, Soul!, to the public for a while. I’d missed it back  in January of 2019  when there was a small screening in Philadelphia, but had kept my eye out to see when it got larger distribution. Well, now’s the time! 

There’s been an addition of about ten minutes to its listed runtime and the addition of a co-director credit for Sam Pollard. So I assume this might be a more polished version than I would have gotten to see back then, anyway. And honestly, the wait could have been worth it. Not only is this the perfect time for the release of this film, but I’d say it’s expertly crafted. 

Mr. Soul! opens up with a little bit of history discussing the race riots that occurred across the United States in the late 1960s. There was a federal investigation that found that a major cause for the cultural divide in the country was the lack of positive Black representation in the media. In the hopes to resolve this, there was a push to Black programming on public television. At the same time, Ellis Haizlip was looking for a way to present the Black Arts Movement to a broader audience. He felt that Black poets were integral to being able to deal with the world. From this confluence of events, Soul! Was born to New York City’s WNDT on September 12th, 1968.

Suggestions were made to model it after The Tonight Show, but Haizlip said he wanted something deeper. While not being your typical host, he ended up taking over those duties after the first few shows. Instead of being the more chummy, comedic type he excelled at making incisive comments and building strong relationships. This made for thought provoking discussions and performances with a huge list of guests.

Throughout the documentary, not only do we get to see clips of performances by musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Al Green, The Delfonics and Kool and the Gang but there was also poetry by Nikki Giovanni and The Last Poets, dance choreographed by George Faison and discussions with actors and cultural figures like Harry Bellafonte, Sidney Poitier, Kathleen Cleaver and James Bladwin. But these aren’t dumped in for eye-candy. These moments are used to build the twin stories of the life of Ellis Haizlip and the cultural movement he was bringing into homes across the country.

As we learn how the show grew, we learn about the man who fostered that growth. Having died in 1991, Ellis’s tale is told through stories by the family he was born into as well as the family he built around himself over the years. As an openly gay Black man in the 1960s, you wouldn’t think that so many people from various backgrounds would want to go on his show, but Ellis was not the type to back down. He even had Louis Farrakhan on to discuss the Nation of Islam and asked him about the Nation’s stance on homosexuality. However, this wasn’t a debate. Soul! was a place to share culture of all types. “Black culture is world culture” and he wanted to show all “shades of soul.” “No subject was taboo if it was put into decent language.”

I loved watching this film and was moved by several individual moments, as well as the whole of it. I think this is the perfect time for the world to experience this story. It’s a beautiful document of Black Excellence woven into the tale of the show, as well as the man that created it and helped keep it running for five years.

Available to watch today, check the film’s website for virtual cinemas and live streaming options.