Ornette: Made in America + The Cry of Jazz

At the time, The Connection was praised as a masterpiece and became very influential among filmmakers. However, it hasn’t been screened in cinemas since the early 1980s. Until now that is!

This wonderfully restored documentary by groundbreaking, independent filmmaker Shirley Clarke records jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman’s performances from Fort Worth to Morocco. With contributions from luminaries including William Burroughs, Buckminster Fuller, Yoko Ono and Robert Palmer. Ornette: Made in America is essential for anyone wishing to understand the history of jazz and the fertile creative exchanges of the 1970s and 1980s in the country. It is a portrait of the inner life of an artist-innovator captured using equally novel techniques closely associated to music.

The Cry of Jazz

Afterwards, Eye will screen the controversial film The Cry of Jazz (1958, 34') by Edward Bland that is now viewed as one of the earliest (influential) films in black independent cinema which has led to the film also being referred to as ‘the first hip hop film’.

The Cry of Jazz starts with a conversation between jazz lovers and intellectuals about the state of jazz in 1958 and the extent to which the black emancipation movement plays a role in (the appreciation of) jazz. Subsequently, in a number of chapters, live music by Sun Ra is employed to tell the history of jazz.