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Poster for Wattstax

Wattstax

100,000 brothers and sisters turning onto being black... and telling it like it is!

1973 · 1h 38m · R Documentary, Music
Directed by Mel Stuart

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Overview

A documentary film about the Afro-American Woodstock concert held in Los Angeles seven years after the Watts riots. Director Mel Stuart mixes footage from the concert with footage of the living conditions in the current-day Watts neighborhood.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
90%
Tomatometer
Fresh

The restored rerelease is a time capsule of Afros, anger and attitude.

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
Fresh

A time when not only a single record company could put together a day like this, but could then give every dollar made to charity.

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
Rotten

It just has the air of something too carefully laid out in advance. It's so busy being glossy and optimistic that it doesn't even allow its performers time to create on screen a measure of the excitement they might have created in person.

Vincent Canby, New York Times
Fresh

A candid, colorful and deeply meaningful sociocultural time capsule.

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
Fresh

A recording of a historic moment, Wattstax has considerable value.

John Hartl, Seattle Times

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