The strength of Manthoulis’ film lies in how it plays with both documentary and blues codes. It could’ve boiled down to a series of encounters with the genre’s masters filmed in close-up in their old age in the 1970s when – finally – they experienced true glory… But no! Instead, Manthoulis chooses to use fiction’s methods (the narrative “vehicle” is embodied by Freddy, a young delinquent from Harlem struggling with relationship problems and endless hassles). The friction between these two registers submerges us into the very spirit of the blues, music that’s experienced and felt and lived. This is what B.B. King and Roosevelt Sykes are saying as they sing their hearts out about their lost loves, their lives stolen by pretty much everything. Like the best of them, this is a film to listen to as well as watch. It might make you smile, it might give you a buzz, you might wonder what path it’s taking you on. Trust it – the path is the blues…

Benoît Hické
Programmer and professor