Email this story Printable version The new documentary on the making and lasting influence of Paul Simon's classic album, Graceland, will debut at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22.
Directed by Joe Berlinger (Brother's Keeper, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, the West Memphis Three/Paradise Lost trilogy), Under African Skies is the story of the making of Graceland, and the controversy created when Simon went to South Africa to record with local artists. The movie 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.
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.
Following its Sundance premiere, the movie, 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.
Then, 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.
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