By Chip Chandler — Producer
A rocking new documentary about the unheralded influence of Native Americans in popular music will get a free screening Nov. 15.
Panhandle PBS's 2018-19 season of Indie Lens Pop-Up screenings will kick off Nov. 15 with a free screening of Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. The kick-off event is co-presented by Amarillo College's FM90 and Amarillo College's Diversity Team.
The film will screen at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 15 in the Amarillo College Concert Hall Theatre, followed by a short concert.
Rumble is an electrifying look at the Native American influence in popular music, despite attempts to ban, censor and erase Indian culture, bringing the music and musicians to life using innovative re-creations, archival concert footage and interviews.
Their stories are told by some of the music legends who knew them, played with them and were inspired by them, including Robbie Robertson (Mohawk), George Clinton, Taj Mahal, Slash, Jackson Browne, Taboo (Shoshone/Mexican), Buddy Guy, Quincy Jones, Derek Trucks, Tony Bennett, Iggy Pop, Steven Tyler and Stevie Van Zandt. Also featured are Native American poet and activist John Trudell, rock critic David Fricke, director Martin Scorsese and many more.
As the film reveals, early pioneers of the blues such as Charlie Patton had Native as well as African American roots, and one of the first and most influential jazz singers, Mildred Bailey, had a voice trained on Native American songs.
As the folk rock era took hold in the 1960s and ‘70s, Native Americans such as Peter La Farge and Buffy Sainte-Marie helped to define its evolution, and Native guitarists and drummers like Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis and Randy Castillo forever changed the trajectory of rock and roll.
It will premiere on-air at 9 p.m. Jan. 21.
The concert will feature Amarillo rock band Mind Plays, a family band whose members are of Native American descent.
Future Indie Lens Pop-Up screenings will feature The Providers, a film about rural healthcare and physician shortages; Charm City, made on the frontlines of the violent streets of Baltimore; and Wrestle, which focuses on three small-town high school wrestlers. Screening dates and locations will be announced soon.
Chip Chandler is a producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
