I have a press relase on Google Docs you may share:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZkJ4Z0QQBXdZGc0N3h6cmRfMmY1cGpodDRo&hl=en
and here it is!
"Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded" celebrates the daring and outrageous era of classic Rhythm & Blues radio with a rich profile of the man who helped start it all, Atlanta trailblazer James 'Alley Pat' Patrick. This laugh-out-loud film is full of infectious music, vintage graphics, and a trove of loopy, barrier-breaking ''airchecks'' by the last surviving DJ from the first black-owned radio station in the USA. WERD-AM signed on in 1949, with studios in the center of Atlanta’s historic Auburn district.
Alley Pat sang and screamed over classic 50s jazz and blues, and imprudently improvised his way through hilarious live commercials. But the film shows that beneath Pat's clowning was some deadly serious business; civil rights pioneers including Andrew Young reveal Alley Pat's quiet but pivotal role in their shared struggle.
His is a life so unique and colorful, it barely fits in one movie. He befriended nearly all the black music greats of the era... as a tour promoter, record label payola man, and as emcee of hundreds of historic concerts and club dates.
The film takes a close up look at the relationship between the "Negro format" radio stations and the new, open-minded white audience of the 1950's. These listeners could privately tune in to the most exciting music of the day via a car or bedroom radio -- while in-person access was denied by segregation laws.
Later, as Atlanta's first black bail bondsman, he aligned with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960’s, and rescued jailed civil rights marchers locked up in the tense small-towns on front lines of the battle. While these protesters came to these dangerous and on-edge cities in a group, Pat - in his role as bondsman - tells of arriving alone, armed with only a suitcase full of money.
The film explores Pat's close friendship with crucial civil rights activist Hosea Williams. It concludes with Alley Pat's touching and over-the-top eulogy at Williams' funeral on the altar of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church.
The film is a seven-year project directed and edited by Tom Roche, a filmmaker with such varied projects as early R.E.M. videos, Space Ghost Coast-To-Coast, and in 2009, Spinal Tap Unplugged. This unique story is told with rollicking humor - and drama - using decades-old radio recordings sonically restored to glistening quality. Yet the film shares a scrappy, devil-may-care quality with the great man's original - and unpredictable - radio shows.
"Alley Pat: The Music Is Recorded" is a new film that revels in Pat's on-air anarchy during broadcasting's pre-corporate era, and brings his socially engaged spirit boldly to life. Alley Pat is the righteously real ''Mouth of the South."
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Contact: Tom Roche
Director, ALLEY PAT: THE MUSIC IS RECORDED
troche@crawford.com 404.921.4476
http://alleypattapes.blogspot.com
2 comments:
Hey, Tom,
Sue and I watched most of Alley Pat the last few days (separately) and we really like it! Nice work! Really fascinating look at radio, race, civil rights, etc. Never lost interest. Congratulations! Alley Pat is one of a kind. Good to hear he's recovering.
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