{"id":543,"date":"2022-03-02T14:36:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T14:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/equality-and-diversity\/?p=543"},"modified":"2022-03-03T08:29:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T08:29:57","slug":"mavis-the-joyful-life-of-a-gospel-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/equality-and-diversity\/mavis-the-joyful-life-of-a-gospel-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavis! The Joyful Life of a Gospel Legend."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Women’s History Month is taking place throughout March with multiple events happening at UWE. As part of the celebrations, third-year BA Film Studies students are providing a series of weekly film reviews. The first in the series is Mavis! which documents the life of civil rights icon and blues singer, Mavis Staples, reviewed by Aoife Ranyell. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Shot from Mavis! <\/em>Dir. Jessica Edwards. Dogwoof, 2015. [Description: A woman is standing on a stage looking at the crowd singing into a microphone. She has both arms in the air and is smiling.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no better way to begin Women’s History Month than by showcasing a true power icon and legend of women\u2019s music history. Directed by Jessica Edwards, Mavis!<\/em><\/a> is a feel-good documentary focussing on the life and talent of the woman in question: rhythm, blues and gospel singer, lead vocalist in her family band The Staple Singers, inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and verbal civil rights activist, Mavis Staples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a chronological, first-person approach to retelling Mavis’s life and story, the 80-minute runtime tightly packs in decades\u2019 worth of music and history: from her roots in church gospel singing, through her connection with Dr Martin Luther King, to where we can find her now. She is still performing and making her incredible soulful music, and at the point of release, Mavis had been touring for 60 years \u2013 she\u2019s not your ordinary 82-year-old. Mavis\u2019s warming, animated personality radiates through the screen and it\u2019s very difficult not to be completely enamoured with her. Edwards intersperses charismatic interviews with footage from Mavis\u2019s bellowing live performances (that will undoubtedly give you goosebumps), backstage recording sessions, and snippets of her private life \u2013 including a fleeting romance with a young Bob Dylan, and her electric friendship with the one-and-only Prince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This confident documentary truly highlights the innate joy, passion and hope that Mavis generates in everyone she meets, and it\u2019s no surprise that by the end of the film you are left feeling her good nature and powerful energy within you. As she says herself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just doing what I\u2019ve always done. Just trying to bring love and music to the people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>

<\/p>Mavis Staples<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And she certainly does that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further Viewing:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n