On January 22, 2012, “Under African Skies,” the new Joe Berlinger-directed documentary chronicling the creation and lasting influence of Paul Simon’s groundbreaking Graceland, will debut at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, kicking off a year’s long celebration commemorating the 25th anniversary of Simon’s musical and cultural achievement.
Following its Sundance premiere, “Under African Skies,” one of the year’s most eagerly anticipated documentaries, is slated for international film festival screenings and a limited theatrical run as well as airings on A&E.
The story of the making of Graceland, and the controversy created when Simon went to South Africa to record with local artists, is told in “Under African Skies,” the new full-length documentary from two-time Emmy and Peabody Award winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger (“Brother’s Keeper,” “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,” the West Memphis Three/”Paradise Lost” trilogy) and producers@radical.media and A&E IndieFilms.
Coming this spring, Legacy Recordings will release a Graceland 25th anniversary commemorative edition deluxe collector’s box set as well as a special two-disc set, each featuring the original album with bonus tracks and the director’s cut of “Under African Skies.”
“Under African Skies” travels with Paul Simon back to South Africa 25 years after his first visit. Simon revisits the making of the record, surveying from the vantage of history the turbulence and controversy surrounding the album’s genesis. His artistic decision to collaborate with African musicians created a new world musical fusion, combining American and African musical idioms while igniting an intense political crossfire, with Paul Simon accused of breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the Apartheid regime.
The universal appeal of the music of Graceland proved more powerful and enduring than the political hotbed attending its creation. In 1986, the album sold 14 million copies worldwide, and received universal praise from critics around the globe. Simon and the members of Ladysmith Black Mambazo performed on Saturday Night Live and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.
By January of 1987, “You Can Call Me Al” was everywhere and Graceland won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 1987. Then, in an unprecedented carryover, the album garnered the Grammy for Song of the Year with its title track in 1988. The album generated three hit singles and kept Paul Simon and the Graceland tour on the road for five years.
In the film, Simon provides a fresh and revelatory perspective on the album while gathering the record’s original musicians for a transcendental Graceland concert reunion. “Under African Skies” features interviews with key anti-apartheid activists of the time and such musical legends as Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney, David Byrne and Peter Gabriel.
Graceland continues to provide rewards to its listeners and remains a pivotal listening experience for writers, artists and fans. “Paul Simon’s Graceland played a greatly significant role in removing the standoffish dread Western culture harbored toward South Africa during its internal struggle against apartheid, humanizing both a country’s soul-searching hunger for liberation and its simultaneous outpouring of cathartic creative expression.” – Timothy White, Billboard
“Prior to Graceland, the music of South Africa was largely unknown outside the country, except to a small minority of world music fans…” – Peter Gabriel
“I don’t like the idea that people who aren’t adolescents make records. Adolescents make the best records. Except for Paul Simon. Except for Graceland. He’s hit a new plateau there, but he’s writing to his own age group. Graceland is something new.” – Joe Strummer interviewed by Richard Cromelin for the Los Angeles Times on January 31, 1988
“In many ways, Graceland was the most extraordinary experience in my entire career…. The insight into rhythm was the great gift that I received from making the trip to South Africa, and collaborating with African musicians.” – Paul Simon
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Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Image by annaberthold
Ladysmith Black Mambazo performance at
the University of Southern California
Bovard Auditorium
26 February 2008
London Paul Simon Graceland
Image by Beechwood Photography
Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mumbazo on the original Graceland Tour in Royal Albert Hall London.
