Pete Seeger: The Power of Song 2007

This rousing, affectionate biographical portrait of singer/activist Pete Seeger, now in his late 80s, is also an overview of 20th-century American folk music. How could it be otherwise? In the 50s, with his band the Weavers, he took folk music to the hit parade. In the 60s he turned "We Shall Overcome" into the anthem of the civil rights movement. He was kept off American television for 17 years on account of his left-leaning views, but never lost his audience. Jim Brown's highly enjoyable film weaves superb archival footage with testimony from family, friends, some well-known admirers and the man himself. — BG. "As certain to get audiences singing as the man himself... a terrific, multilayered portrait of a singer whose legacy extends beyond music and into every major social action movement since the 40s... each song and concert performance [is] gorgeously reproduced in what used to be called ‘living stereo'." — Jay Weissburg, Variety