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Honky-tonk hero Leon Russell is captured in his prime in this rediscovered snapshot of the free-wheeling 70s.
Leon Russell was a wild country boy cum session musician, who branched out on his own and became a legend. He's accompanied music's greats, from Clapton and Dylan to Sinatra and the Stones. His songs have been immortalised by Peggy Lee, The Carpenters, Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera. But this is where the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's solo career began.
Once described as "the greatest film about rock 'n' roll and American music that you will likely never see" – it had previously only been shown at non-for-profit screenings with its director, the renowned music documentarian Les Blank, in attendance – this legendary film finally had its public premiere at SXSW earlier this year. Filmed between 1972 and 1974, A Poem is a Naked Person is a wondrous peek into the world swirling around Russell while recording his solo debut with George Jones, Willie Nelson and more. Blank (Burden of Dreams, MIFF 1982) haunted studios, parties, tractor pulls and concerts to bring us a giddy, sun-drenched patchwork of hippiedom, where free expression was the only law.
"One of the greatest rock documentaries I've ever seen, as eloquent an evocation of the reality-distortion field around rock stars as DA Pennebaker's Don't Look Back or Robert Frank's Cocksucker Blues, but funnier and stranger than either." – Grantland