Documentary of the remarkable story of Berry Gordy.
Berry was the musical genius behind the formative years of Motown, he provides on screen narration with large contributions from Smokey Robinson.
As a child Berry was always interested in making money and started selling newspapers to white-folk, he did well and pulled in help from his brother to increase sales. But this backfired, you see because 1 black youth was cute but 2 started to look like a threat.
Berry briefly worked at Ford and so we see how car assembly techniques influenced his music production. Berry's skill was song writing and taking talented artists and bringing out the best from them to become superstars.
We also see how Smokey Robinson was a special part of the Motown story, he had the idea of producing their own records instead of taking a tiny commission from other companies.
The 'Hitsville USA' studio looked like an ordinary house, this was where they started recording. Motown sounded different and there was a reason, the secret was recording in their echoey bathroom. The film includes historic film footage, including photos and audio clips of meetings where the music making machine 'family' would decide which singles to release.
Don't think of this as a film about black music, more about the sound of America. Deserves an Oscar in the documentary category.
