The new movie “Rejoice and Shout” takes viewers back through the history of one of African-American culture’s most influential musical traditions.
“Rejoice and Shout,” traces the development of the gospel music into today’s blues, swing, soul, rap and hip hop, and contemporary gospel.
Don McGlynn, director of the film whose works also include “The Howlin’ Wolf Story,” “The Legend of Teddy Edwards,” and “Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog” , expressed he had “never had a film that was this sprawling and huge.”
The documentary takes its root in the America South, where music provided an escape and freedom from slavery, hatred and violence.
Joe Lauro, president of film history, asserts that this history needed to be told. Since his childhood he has collected recordings of music dating as far back as the 1925. After 10 years of painstaking research, he was able to compile about 150 hours of gospel material.
“In those 10 years I just kept acquiring and searching for archival material that became the core of ‘Rejoice and Shout.’ So in one way the 10 years that it took to make it came in handy because we found 150 hours of material to choose from,” Lauro said.
