We Want the Funk! (2025)
Genre: Documentary / Music
Duration: 80 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Stanley Nelson and Nicole London
Stars: Marcus Miller, Carlos Alomar and George Clinton
IMDb score:
8,0 (170)
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Reviews & comments
De filosoof
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- 2489 messages
- 1700 votes
Just like funk itself, characterized by the constant clapping on the first beat, the documentary constantly hammers home the point: funk is the true black music that emerged when blacks in the US no longer wanted to be acceptable to whites (as Motown wanted) but wanted to celebrate their own blackness. The founder of this funk, James Brown, even shouted the appropriate lyrics: "I'm Black and I'm Proud!" But because funk is the true black music—which is essentially just rhythm that gets you in the groove—it's already present in gospel and African music and is also the inevitable basis of later black music (hip-hop), while white artists create their own wooden versions of it. Why is funk so wonderful and liberating? Because the groove brings you to a "transcendent" state, especially when dancing together: the groove takes over you completely, so that you lose your individuality and are completely free. That is a well-known phenomenon in ancient religions – I am particularly familiar with the Dionysian cult of the ancient Greeks, where followers dance and sing in ecstasy – and funk does indeed seem very effective in reaching that state, because it is purely movement to the rhythm, which brings about spiritual salvation just as much in gospel as in the psychedelic funk of Parliament-Funkadelic.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Filmkriebel
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- 10013 messages
- 4679 votes
I think I saw it a few weeks ago on Canvas. A very good documentary about the cultural significance of funk as a distinct music for African Americans to emancipate themselves from white influence. James Brown's role in the rise of funk music shouldn't be underestimated; you'd almost forget it. The search for identity often went far with the Afro-futurist movements that wanted to give African Americans a different interplanetary origin to help them forget their past as slaves.
Funk also left its mark on the development of disco, which was a more whitewashed funk with more electronic equipment. A style that was absolutely essential for the many years that followed. Personally, I only truly discovered funk in my thirties, thanks to some hip bars in Ghent, and it's like they say in the documentary: you really can't resist it.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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