REMEMBER ME, THE MAHALIA JACKSON STORY
US, 2022, 82 minutes, Colour.
Ledisi, Keith David, Corbin Bleu, Janet Hubert, Vanessa Williams, Columbus Short, Andy Lauer, Keith D. Robinson.
Directed by Denise Dowse.
This is a brief biographical film, focusing on Gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, her background, her talent, her career.
She is played by singer, Ledisi Young, who played Mahalia in the portrait of Martin Luther King, Selma.
Within the short running time, there is a background sketch of growing up in the south, the vivacious Mahalia, her mother with ambitions but thwarted, collapsing and dying, their father unable to look after the children and entrusting them to their very severe Aunt Duke. But, in New Orleans, Mahalia is delighted with the music and the local dancing.
10 years later, her mother’s sister takes her to Chicago, rather wide-eyed, singing Gospel, quickly meeting an entrepreneur, played by Keith David, who persuades her to sign a contract.
It is a very enjoyable club sequence in Chicago where the impressionable Mahalia goes to a club to meet friends and is delighted with Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong.
One of the main advantages of the film is that the action pauses, so to speak, and there are many songs sung by Ledisi with her powerful voice. This comes to the fore, as it did in her life, with her meeting Martin Luther King (here played by Columbus Short), friendly with him, joining his Civil Rights causes, singing powerfully at the March on Washington (also seen in the film, Ruston, with DaVine Randolph as Mahalia Jackson).
There is some background on her personal life, mention of the first marriage, some more focus on her second marriage and her sense of betrayal.
The framework of the action is her visit to Hamburg where she is interviewed. While her company got rid of her because her albums weren’t selling, she had a successful career in performance, the film ending with her death.
- Audience knowledge of Mahalia Jackson? Singer, gospel, her career, international reputation? Singing at the March on Washington?
- The performance of Ledisi, embodying Mahalia Jackson (and playing her in Selma), personality, life story, the interview and reflections, the singing and performances?
- The early 20th century, the South, African Americans and their status, the home, Mahalia and her brother, her aunt, mother and father, the focus on the mother, watching the younger generation dancing with enthusiasm, her personal frustrations and loss of dreams, the speeches, collapse, death? The funeral? The children’s grief? The father unable to support them, giving them to their aunt Duke, her sternness? The parade in New Orleans, the dancing, the music, the young Mahalia joining in, the art watching?
- 10 years passing, the visit of the aunt, the dream of Chicago, Aunt Duke and her stern comments about white treatment of Blacks, Mahalia going, the arrival in Chicago, the aunt singing, the exuberance, Mahalia singing, the record company, the interview, immediately signing the contract?
- Her going to the club, the re-creation of the period, music, the compere, Duke Ellington and the band, Cab Calloway and his style of singing and audience response, Louis Armstrong? Her relishing this? But her religious background, identity, wanting to seeing only gospel?
- The outline of her career, success, records? Concerts? The record company dropping her, the need for her to promote albums?
- The sketchy outline of her personal life, the mention of a first marriage, her admirer, at the club, making contact, the proposal, the wedding, his roving eye, her suspicions, spurning him, ousting him? His later being in the concert audience?
- Civil rights issues, the encounters with Martin Luther King, friendship, her collaboration, singing, the March on Washington and her performance, later Martin Luther King phoning her, feeling alone, her singing and supporting him? The impact of his death on her?
- In Germany, the interview, the question is, the possibility for her to reminisce?
- Her status, achievement, Gospel songs, wide audiences, personal life, Civil Rights?