Call + Response

Musicians and filmmakers SHOULD use their talents to call attention to issues of injustice. In this, I am in full agreement with this film. I also am in full agreement that human slavery and trafficking are among the most unethical of acts towards our fellow men and women. But this movie was a miss for me. It felt like too many people in the wrong room, grasping to make connections that weren't really advancing any argument beyond the obvious: Human trafficking is bad. We sing about it. Music became an element the detracted from an important documentary, sensationalizing an issue that should stand as cold and simple fact--this should have been an act of journalism.

Some of the music is very nice though, and the journalistic elements are extraordinarily moving. But by far the most impressive scenes of the movie involve Cornel West's explanation of "the connection that doesn't quite work", drawing a history of American music through its heritage of slavery, which is at once powerful and downright entertaining. It's like a beautiful equation of the universe that just doesn't work. (Mass*Acceleration)/"hamburger helper" ≠ "how to end world hunger".