At a time when the spirit of black lives is being embraced and opened, there is more opportunity for content creators to highlight all manner of passion and stories. There is no better place to focus on this than in the context of factual narrative.
FRANK BEY: ALL MY DUES ARE PAID, like SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN and STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN, contextualises a throughline of history as an alternative view, focusing on the Georgia-born vocalist Frank Bey (1946-2020) whose journey took him from the troubles of the Deep South to the City of Brotherly Love and beyond the American-Canadian border in a film that gives us a real sense of what the blues can truly mean to a wide variety of people.
Bey certainly had context and history, having started his early career in Otis Redding‘s inner circle, before finding kindred spirits in the likes of James Brown and the Moorish Vanguard, the latter being a group that was part of the Moorish Science Temple of America which helped black people embrace their identity and spirit.
However, there was a misunderstood sense of betrayal between the Vanguard and Bey, who thought he and James Brown had concocted a deal to leave them out of the fold and as a result upped sticks, leaving Bey up the proverbial creek without a paddle and forcing him to seek work as a cab driver and a fish restauranteur for seventeen years away from the very thing he loved as a boy.
However, the universe sometimes draws people to their true, spiritual fate – and Bey’s journey is one that certainly will resonate with any of us who have got life experience, even if we don’t possess life fulfilment….
Cinematographer Marie Hinson and producer/director Tom Dwyer‘s vibrant posthumous tribute (co-directed with editor Lisa Palattella) encapsulates the essence of a man who truly believed that the voice resounded from the family and heart, with a legacy that was shaped amidst much conflict and controversy for black individuals like himself. The film pulls no punches when we listen to some of Bey’s own experiences as a boy and young man (the language Bey uses on occasion is unflinching, but it has purpose in a age of woke mindset) but it is his incredible journey that will linger long in the mind.
Like SUGARMAN and SHADOWS, this is a real joy to behold. Fans of THE BLUES BROTHERS can certainly find a SWEET HOME with this documentary.
The Los Angeles International Film Festival runs from 1st – 6th November 2022.
For info and tickets, please go to:
To learn more about Frank Bey, please go to:
https://www.frankbeymusic.com/
