AUSTIN, Texas — When Jeffrey Levy-Hinte was hired as an editor in 1995 for what was to become the famed documentary "When We Were Kings," he stumbled across more than 120 hours of footage dealing with a concert staged in what was then Zaire in advance of the boxing match.
The concert was part of a movement by African-Americans to celebrate their ties to the African continent, in conjunction with the famous 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" featuring boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
"When We Were Kings," which was released in 1997, went on to win an Oscar for best documentary feature, but Levy-Hinte remained haunted by what he had seen — and what American audiences had never seen.
"It was an exhausting marathon working on 'When We Were Kings,'" says Levy-Hinte, who visited Austin earlier this year during the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival. "But in wrapping it up, I realized that I was putting yet another movie back into the vaults" — one dealing with the concert, starring James Brown, B.B. King and other American music legends.
"With the death of James Brown (in December 2006), it seemed like it would border on cinematic malfeasance to let the footage just sit there," he says. So he started work on a documentary, "Soul Power," which runs 93 minutes.
"It was always a tenuous venture to stage a concert in Zaire," Levy-Hinte says. But Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine had long dreamed of staging an American soul concert in the heart of Africa. And the chance came about when they persuaded boxing promoter Don King to let them stage the event in conjunction with the "Rumble in the Jungle."
Cinematographers Albert Maysles, Paul Goldsmith, Kevin Keating and Roderick Young filmed the concert — during the building of the stage in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), during the flights of the musicians to the continent and during the concert itself. The result was more than 125 hours of footage, all of which Levy-Hinte reviewed before making "Soul Power."
Levy-Hinte says he wanted to create a series of concert DVDs about the concert. But when he saw some of the footage, he knew a feature documentary would be worthwhile.
"I didn't want to overlap with 'When We Were Kings.' I wanted to do something different stylistically," he says. "I didn't want to have retrospective interviews. Instead, I wanted to immerse viewers in the moment."
The key was to let the audience see the context of the concert, he says. "This was very important to the musicians," he says. "They were going back to their roots and communing with the culture."
The director shows the villages and cities, where the streets are alive with music and dancing as people anticipate the arrival of the artists.
The documentary also includes footage of Muhammad Ali, who was at the height of his fame and trying to regain his title, sparring with musicians about culture and how Africa offered more freedoms. This, of course, is being said in a country ruled by dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, posters of whom dot the landscape.
But Ali was known for stirring up controversy, and the musicians take his comments in stride. As for "Soul Power," it simply presents Ali and doesn't delve into the politics.
Levy-Hinte says the biggest problem was paring down the footage of the concert, which ran for three days. "Everybody performed at least a 45-minute set," he says. And "everybody" includes such acts as James Brown, the Spinners, Miriam Makeba, Sister Sledge, B.B. King, the Crusaders, the Fania All Stars (with Celia Cruz), Bill Withers and the J.B.'s.
"Brown sang for about two hours," Levy-Hinte says. "And with his persona, his lyrics, his performance, I knew he had to be the end of the movie. His whole set was incredibly powerful."
In the future, Levy-Hinte says, he hopes to show more of the concert as extras on the "Soul Power" DVD. And in the long term, he hopes to release a DVD of the entire concert.
But for now, he says, he'll settle for what he has. "It's a miracle that any of this footage exists, and I want to share as much as I can."
Charles Ealy writes for the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: cealy(at)statesman.com.