A collection of some of the greatest soul performances from the BBC's archive, featuring Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Isaac Hayes, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge.
"Philip Priestley's acclaimed film charts the history of Stax Records, the influential soul and blues record company founded in the 1960s by Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. Featuring music by an impressive roster of stars, including Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Carla Thomas, The Soul of Stax chronicles the performers' rise through the industry and popular culture, the role played by many of them in the Civil Rights movement, and the label's eventual decline." - bfi.org.uk
With the founding of Stax Records, the white siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton created a label during the period of racial segregation that caused a revolution in the music scene with artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and Isaac Hayes. Their commercial success was closely linked to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.