Recently, Indie Memphis Artistic Director Miriam Bale sat down with director Hugo Sobelman to discuss his new film, SOUL KIDS — making its Memphis premiere March 26 at Crosstown Theater! The film offers "a look behind the scenes at the students who are continuing this legacy of soul music" (Pat Mitchell, SMA Executive Director) at Stax Music Academy. Following the screening, the event will feature an in-person Q&A with Director Hugo Sobelman and subjects of the film -- PLUS a special performance from 926, the Stax Music Academy Alumni Band! More info and tickets available HERE.
SOUL KIDS DIRECTOR
HUGO SOBELMAN
Miriam Bale
So, Hugo, tell me, how did you become interested in Memphis?
Hugo Sobelman
Oh, I'm not sure. Obviously, I became interested in Memphis. But that wasn't the first goal I had in mind,. I made a vacation trip with a friend of mine back in 2016. And, we just took a car and went from New Orleans to Chicago and back and forth. The goal was just to listen to music, discover jazz, blues, gospel, soul, funk. We wanted to go all the way and just stop in bars and listen to music. That was the main goal. And we made so many encounters along the way. I had my camera with me, like I always do. And I kept interviewing some, a lot of people, families, children, grandparents that had a close relationship with music.
And every time, what kept coming back was that music was such a great factor for talking about greater things, bigger things, social issues, for instance. And I'm 34 years old; I grew up with hip hop music. As much as I got interested about it, I wanted to learn what it came from. And realizing that what I love the most about it, about music, was the way it kept talking about issues that weren't talked [about] elsewhere. I learned so much with music. I feel like hip hop was part of my education. And so I kept on thinking about those kinds of things.
We met so many people, so many different people who had a close relationship with music, the same way it touched me back in France. I came back to France, I had a few shots, I had all these interviews. And I asked my producer, okay, would you, would you be willing to give me some money to go back over there with some equipment with a camera operator, sound engineer, and just give us a few weeks, and I'm sure we can find the right place where everything I just talked about is exists, and it's living. It's good. You can feel it, you can even touch it in some way.
MB: And you were able to get the funding on that faith?
HS: Yeah, they were able to find, not so much salaries or anything, but just enough money so we could get there with some equipment. For like five weeks we scoured the whole Mississippi Delta, a lot of it was about blues at that time. It was about Mississippi because that's where I made the most encounters. And, Chandra Williams, who was in the film [Soul Kids], Zelena Ratliff, others, a lot of blues men, blues women in Clarksdale. And we started looking at schools, musical schools. And the rest is history.
MB: That's so interesting. You talked a lot about music and your connection to music, but the film ends up being as much about race in America at this moment as music, if not more so. So. This is a delicate question, but how do you as a white man from Europe handle tackling race in America?
HS: Not so easily, first of all. Yeah, that's the reality of it. I'm not sure I realized how, how important that was when I made the film. That was my first film. And I'm still thinking a lot about all those things. Of course, my position, how legitimate I am. Or I don't feel like I'm telling anything, though, giving my point of view about what I saw. But every word that is said in this film doesn't belong to me. I gave a mic, I gave an opportunity for everyone I met at Stax to have a platform and talk about what they wanted.
I was more afraid about trying to avoid it, when it's so real, and present in the school. Every day, in every class, there is some kind of bridge made between music and social issues, racial issues. I thought that it would, to me, it would have been even more tricky to avoid it. And I don't even feel like I was pointing to America when I made this film. Because when I came back to France, I saw the same thing. Yeah. And my next film is about the exact same thing in Paris,
MB: In Paris?
HS: Yeah. Meaning that it goes beyond my view about America. And trying to make a film about Black Lives Matter, that wasn't my goal. But I found when you were in this classroom, when everything is talked about, that's the beauty of it. Avoiding it would have been horrible to me, like saying, "Okay, I just want to see one part of you, please don't talk about this.”
MB: You said, this is so much about education for you?
HS: Yeah, to me [it is] one of the main goals of the film. I've had this conversation after screenings in France, at a lot of Q&As people are asking me, "OK, so it's really complicated in the US with all those race problems." And I'm like, "This is what you got from the film? This is the first thing you get from the film?" Like, in France, the way we're taught about music or art, and the way it's perceived is either: it's success or it's failure.
MB: It's art removed from life?
HS: Yeah, absolutely. And from a horizontal dialogue. What I've learned at Stax is how important it is. Kortland has this scene where he talks to the kids saying, trying to build down what is writing a song, like how easy it can be, how natural it can be. And to me, he doesn't even talk as a teacher. And to me, he’s just an artist with ten more years of experience talking with other artists, not looking down on them, instead looking at them at the same level. And to me, if a French audience, a French white audience can understand those kinds of things, and understand how art could be a bridge to so many things.
What I hope is that the French audience, for instance, can see the film can ask the question, okay, how can we take something about the way education is being brought at STAX and how we can not only teach the kids, for instance, to play music, but to learn how to position themselves as an artist, as a musician in society in general, and learn what kind of impact, what kind of platform you can build for yourself.
MB: Oh, I see. You would like to see art education in France be more…
HS: Horizontal, like cross. When in France, it's like if you make music, you can't act. Right? If you write, you can't direct. And that's one example.
MB: I see. It's very hierarchical.
HS: Pyramid. Yeah. And that's a mistake. I think it's a mistake. And especially when you, when you talk to a younger generation that aspires to do great things and want to work. Everything is open, and the way you can educate yourself while having fun with it is a great lesson. I mean, this is the best way.
MB: And become a better person and citizen.
HS: Yeah, exactly. And that's what's gonna help you become a better musician also.
MB: Very true. A visual choice you did that I'm interested in is the sky. There are a lot of shots of where there is a lot of open sky. What was that choice about?
HS: The sky is about...the sky.. First of all, we never wanted to look down on them with the camera. It was always at their level, or… [gestures]
MB: Or below.
HS: Yeah, because we wanted to give the feel that they're powerful. And they are like, the way I saw them wasn't like, "I'm a kid, I'm looking at you." I was really looking at them like this. You know, mentally even though they were shorter than me––not so much shorter than me because I'm short. Spiritually, I was looking at them like this, and I wanted the viewer to see, to see them like this. So, that's the first thing and the sky above. Sky's the limit. You have so much room to grow because you're allowing yourself to have that space above your head.
That was kind of a thought that we had with our crew one night. You know, it was like they could, they could fly higher. Like they could have wings. It's kind of mushy, what I'm saying right now, but that's how we felt. Because it's so much energy. Like, you have to imagine spending three hours every day over there and going home after and singing and having the same energy. They gave us so much energy that we're thinking about it constantly. Like how can we give them power? Visually, how can we empower them? And the sky above their head was kind of our answer about this.
SOUL KIDS (Memphis Premiere + Performance)
📅 Saturday, March 26 @ 7:00PM
📍 Crosstown Theater
🎟️: Tickets on sale HERE