Mr. Soul!

From 1968 to 1973, the late night PBS variety show SOUL!, guided by its cerebral producer and host Ellis Haizlip, offered an unfiltered and uncompromising celebration of Black literature, poetry, music, and politics—presenting remarkable individuals whose voices had few other options for national exposure, and, as a result, found the program an improbable place to call home. The program was called the “Black Tonight Show” by some television writers of the day, but the distinctive style and substance of SOUL! was very much its own. The series was among the first to provide expanded images of African Americans on television, shifting the gaze from inner-city poverty and violence to the vibrancy of the Black Arts Movement.

Incorporating participants’ recollections and illuminating archival clips, the vibrant documentary Mr. SOUL! captures a critical moment in our nation’s culture whose impact continues to resonate, and offers us a loving portrait of an unsung hero in Ellis Haizlip, whose voice remains vital five decades on. The film’s director, Melissa Haizlip, received the 2020 Critics Choice Award for Best First Documentary Feature for Mr. SOUL!