Finding Fela

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Audience Member an unexceptional bio documentary about the Nigerian revolutionary Fela Kuti and the afro-beat genesis. not so crazy about the whole behind-the-scenes-making-of Broadway production entanglement with the archival footage to be honest. aside from that, personally, Fela's extreme patriarchal misogynistic treatment of women and dismissal of modern medicine were some hard pills to swallow, but if you can get over that, you might enjoy it. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member not the best made music doc, nor the best from multi-award winning prolific doc master Alex Gibney, this is still a good engaging more than watchable portrait of a controversial African musical and political figure....mixed with archival footage and interviews and interwoven with the story of current Broadway choereogrpahy Bill t Jones making his Broadway show about Fela, it paints an interesting portrait of how to learn about a person as much as it is about the person...the music is great but there is not enough it does not only tell you about the man but about the eras he was in and the Africa around him, from his upbringing and career, to his love affair with weed and love affairs and poligamy to his jailing, his late career and his dying of AIDS...we see the world around him as well as him which is good...and we see his funeral and overall impact... Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Saw it twice, intriguing story about a complex man who was a political activist using music to deliver prophetic music that is relevant today. Also talks about his complex life as a father, husband and chief priest. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Don't much care for Alex Gibney's "Finding Fela". It's a movie that is more about the making of the broadway performance of Fela than about revealing the many complex, dynamic and contradictory sides of a phenomenal but flawed organic intellectual and musical genius. "Finding Fela" plays out as many voyeuristic moments; i.e., the misappropriation of the life of a legend by people who know little about him making a movie for an audience who have also never known his music. Truth be told, I also did not care for the Fela lead in the broadway play. He has none of Fela's power and charisma, even if he can perform, plus his British accent kept getting in the way of believability. Wonder why one of his sons, e.g., Femi Kuti, didn't take on the role. Still there is some saving grace with the many snippets showing the awesome man himself. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Great Journey through the life and the politics of this wild musician Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Pretty stunning look at the legend, even if the Broadway show jumps kind of take away from learning more about him while advertising the performance. I get why it's there and would love to see it, but a straight forward doc might have been better... Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Finding Fela

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