Paul Simon: Under African Skies

Ents24 Rating

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Genre: Musical / Documentary
Director: Joe Berlinger
Running time: 108 mins
Released: 1st January 1970

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About Paul Simon: Under African Skies

Documentary chronicling the creation and influence of the seminal 'Graceland' album by Paul Simon. In 1986, the album sold 14 million copies, receiving widespread critical praise. The album generated three hit singles and kept Paul Simon and the Graceland tour on the road for five years. In the film, Simon provides a fresh and revelatory perspective on the album while gathering the record's original musicians for a transcendental Graceland concert reunion. "Under African Skies" features interviews with key anti-apartheid activists of the time and such musical legends as Quincy Jones, Harry Belafonte, Paul McCartney, David Byrne and Peter Gabriel. Simon revisits the making of the record, surveying from the vantage of history the turbulence and controversy surrounding the album's genesis. His artistic decision to collaborate with African musicians created a new world musical fusion, combining American and African musical idioms while igniting an intense political crossfire, with Paul Simon accused of breaking the UN cultural boycott of South Africa designed to end the Apartheid regime.