MISS SHARON JONES!

Director Barbara Kopple / 2015 / USA

Double Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple gives the people what they want with this rousing look at how cancer couldn't stop the soul queen and her Dap-Kings.

The latest release from the renowned documentary filmmaker (A Conversation with Gregory Peck, MIFF 2000), Miss Sharon Jones! follows the critically acclaimed vocal powerhouse during her year-long fight against pancreatic cancer in 2013 and the creation of what would become the Dap Kings' sixth studio album: 2014's Give the People What They Want.

Once told she was "too black, too fat, too short and too old" to be successful as a singer, Jones is no stranger to staring down adversity. Kopple deftly captures the diminutive diva's toughness (she was once a corrections officer at New York's notorious Riker Island prison) and vulnerability as she negotiates the ups and downs of treatment, while her Dap-Kings bandmates struggle to reconcile their friend's illness with the unforgiving financial realities that come with being off the road.

Highlighting the infectious and bombastic sound synonymous with Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Miss Sharon Jones! is a moving, honest portrait of one of the world's most dynamic rhythm and blues singers.

"The centrepiece of the film shows how the cathartic power of music is medicine for the soul." – Point of View Magazine

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