American Masters - Pete Seeger

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American Masters shows how a bio documentary should be done

Alex Strachan, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Wednesday, February 27, 2008

You know you're in a high-rent neighbourhood with the American Masters documentary Pete Seeger: The Power of Song less than 30 seconds into the 90-minute program, when the first talking head is -- wait for it -- Bob Dylan.

Less than a minute later, you're listening to the personal testimonial of Bruce Springsteen.

It really doesn't get much more high-end than that. Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Maines and Tommy Smothers all weigh in with their personal reminiscences, and the effect is like being invited to a family reunion where everyone's of a like mind, politically and artistically, and everyone gets along.

Seeger was picketed, protested, blacklisted and banned from American commercial TV -- for more than 17 years -- after telling the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 to go fly a kite. But there's nothing strident or particularly polemic about The Power of Song. Filmmaker Jim Brown's paean to the legendary singer-songwriter and political activist -- Seeger was the original warrior poet -- is lovingly crafted, easy on the ears and beautiful to look at.

TV biographies are a dime a dozen these days, done on the cheap and cranked out on the fly. American Masters is different. This is the kind of biographical profile you might expect to see listed alongside the Oscar nominees for best documentary. "I look upon myself as a planter of seeds," Seeger famously said, and this quietly moving film is like looking through a window onto a kinder, gentler past. If you have time for just one program tonight, choose this. (9p.m., on some PBS stations; 9p.m., Friday, March 7, on WPBS)

[Schwa.]

Love the Seeger Sessions disc that Springsteen put out.

[skelter]

nice ... i've got this in my calendar for sure

[boiler]

Here's an interesting quote about Seeger from Dylan's Chronicles vol. 1

...he'd been blacklisted during the McCarthy era and had a hard time, but never stopped working. Hammond was defiant when he spoke about Seeger, that Pete's ancestors had come over on the Mayflower, that his relatives had fought the Battle of Bunker Hill, for Christsake. "Can you imagine those sons of bitches blacklisting him? They should be tarred and feathered."

[balogna pogna]

I saw part of this last night on PBS and I really want to watch the whole thing now.

They also showed clips of other programs in the series and and it looks like a great show.