Daniel Cross
2016
I AM THE BLUES takes the audience on a musical journey through the swamps of the Louisiana Bayou, the juke joints of the Mississippi Delta, and Moonshine soaked BBQs in the North Mississippi Hill Country. Visiting the last original blues devils, many in their 80s, still living in the American deep south and touring the Chitlin’ Circuit. Let Bobby Rush, Barbara Lynn, Henry Gray, Carol Fran, Little Freddie King, Lazy Lester, Bilbo Walker, Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, RL Boyce, LC Ulmer, Lil’ Buck Sinegal, and their friends awaken the blues in all of us.
CREDITS
Soul of the South Award
Indie Memphis and The Bartok Award
Best Documentary Festival Jean Rouch
Best Cinematography at Canadian Screen Awards
❛ This film is a chance to set a spell, watch longtime musicians play and boast and reflect about their lives on and off the road. ❜
— Daniel M. Gold, The New York Times
❛ A rambling, unpretentious music documentary made in the spirit of Alan Lomax and Les Blank, Daniel Cross’ I Am the Blues tags along through Mississippi and Louisiana as aged performers swap songs and recollections with each other ❜
— The Hollywood Reporter
❛ Daniel Cross has made a relaxed and beautifully observed film about a musical form that may disappear in the next couple of decades. ❜
— Marc Glassman, POV
❛ I Am the Blues seeks and finds incredible artists who have been overlooked or forgotten, and gives them their due before they’re gone. ❜
— T’Cha Dunlevy, Montreal Gazette
❛ Cross’ documentary is a clarion call for the torchbearers needed to keep the blues and its associated culture alive. ❜
— Sharonne Cohen, Downbeat