Monday, March 10, 2025

Makings of Curtis Mayfield (2025) SXSW 2025


H.E.R. looks at the life and influence of Curtis Mayfield via talks with people such as Ziggy Marley, Dr. Dre, Maxwell, Tom Morello, John Legend, and Mary J. Blige , as well as through recorded interviews and of course his music.

This is everything you wanted to know about Mayfield and his music but were afraid to ask. It’s a film that puts Mayfield  deeper into the spotlight regarding the course of music history and of social change.

This is less a birth to death biography and more an appreciation of the arc of the man and his work. Interview segments with the various people make up a large part of the film which results in in sections that are extremely detailed about certain sections of Mayfield’s body of work. For example H.E.R. and Dr Dre sit at a mixing board and play a live recording and pull it apart. The result is a film that is not like any other music bio out there.

I suspect that some people may not like this film because it’s not a greatest moments sort of thing that we regularly get these days. Others may have trouble with it; hyperspecific moments that make this feel like you need to be a super Mayfield fan to truly appreciate what you are seeing (I felt this at times). At the same time I would argue that it’s this is what sets the film apart and makes us realize just how good and important Mayfield was.

Recommended.

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