Mavis!
Documentary on the life of legendary soul singer Mavis Staples
Mavis is a celebration of Mavis Staples, the mightiest pair of lungs in family R&B group The Staple Singers. Even at 75 years old, she is a force of nature. She walks uneasily with a cane, but onstage she’s a dynamo. In the film she tells us with pride that when people first heard the Staples’ songs on the radio they would think the nine-year-old Mavis’s parts must have been sung “by a man, or a big fat woman,” and that voice has got more bassy and brilliant with age.
Unfortunately, though, Edwards doesn’t trust us to recognise her subject's talent with our own eyes and ears. Talking head after talking head is roped in to ramp up the legend. “They were as important as the Beatles,” says one contributor of The Staple Singers. “Aretha Franklin had nothing on Mavis,” says another. Let’s tone down the hyperbole, folks. Mavis herself isn’t one for blowing her story out of proportion. When asked about her fling with a pre-superstar Bob Dylan she says coyly, “We may have smooched.” If only Mavis’s director was similarly restrained.
Released by Dogwoof