Black wax

Resource Information

The work Black wax represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Cumberland Council Library Service. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Moving Image, Visual Materials.

Label

Black wax

Statement of responsibility

a Robert Mugge film

Title variation

Gil Scott-Heron in black wax

Contributor

• Scott-Heron, Gil, 1949-2011
• Mugge, Robert, 1950-

Film director

• Mugge, Robert, 1950-

Performer

• Scott-Heron, Gil, 1949-2011

Subject

• Jazz poetry
• African American musicians -- Biography
• Rap (Music)
• Concert films
• Poets, American -- 20th century -- Biography
• Scott-Heron, Gil, 1949-2011
• Nonfiction films
• Monologues with music

Genre

• Biography

Language

eng

Summary

"BLACK WAX is a musical-political entertainment film produced and directed by Robert Mugge in 1982. It was the first American film to be fully funded by Britain's then-brand-new Channel 4 Television and also likely the first film to use Steadicam from first frame to last. BLACK WAX centers on the late African American poet-singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron - the man Melody Maker called "the most dangerous musician alive" and many dubbed the forefather of rap music - and his 10-piece Midnight Band. It was filmed entirely on location in Washington, D.C., primarily at the Wax Museum Nightclub (now defunct). Songs performed by the band include such potent political numbers as "Winter in America," "Alien," "Johannesburg," "Storm Music," "Waiting for the Axe to Fall," "Gun," and "'B' Movie" (a scathing analysis of how and why Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States). Between songs, Mr. Scott-Heron is shown reciting his equally powerful poems ("Paint it Black," "Black History," "Billy Green is Dead," The H2O-Gate Blues," and "Whitey on the Moon"), leading the camera on a unique tour of Washington, D.C. (from the monuments of official Washington through the minority neighborhoods that make up most of the rest), and finally confronting the "ghosts of America's past" (life-sized wax figures of John Wayne, Uncle Sam, Neil Armstrong, Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross, four U.S. Presidents, and black leaders from W.E.B. Du Bois to Martin Luther King). This is Mr. Scott-Heron at the absolute peak of his powers. The politics is always entertaining, and the entertainment is nothing if not political." -- Weinerworld.com

Characteristic

videorecording

Credits note

Directed by Robert Mugge

Dewey number

782.421645

Intended audience

Not rated

Language note

English

PerformerNote

Gil Scott-Heron

Runtime

89

Target audience

adult

Technique

live action