“The Blues Society” by Freestyle Digital Media will be available on the VOD platform

“The Blues Society,” a documentary featuring the Memphis Blues Country Festival, will be available on demand in July.

According to the press, the film, narrated by actor Eric Roberts, “reevaluates the life of the Memphis Country Blues Festival (1966–1970) through the prism of race, 1960s counterculture and the Memphis blues genre.” release. Written, directed and produced by Dr. Augusta Palmer, “The Blues Society” tells the story of blues greats Furry Lewis, Nathan Beauregard and the Reverend Robert Wilkins.

The film also examines “a gaggle of white artists from the North and South who created a celebration of African-American music in a highly racially segregated city. Reaching into the present, the film ends with a 2017 concert by which John Wilkins returns to the stage he last shared together with his father, the Reverend Robert Wilkins, 48 ​​years earlier,” the release reads.

“The Blues Society” will be available to rent/own on all HD digital online platforms, cable and satellite platforms worldwide, and on DVD from July 9. The film will be available through Freestyle Digital Media, the film distribution arm of Allen Media Group, whose founder, chairman and CEO Byron Allen owns Grio.

“I didn’t just want to make a concert film. Everyone can appreciate the unforgettable music in ‘The Blues Society,’ but the love of the blues did not cure white supremacy,” said director Palmer. “I wanted to recreate the idealism of white organizers, but also highlight Black voices and expose the paternalism in the blues revival of the 1960s. Since the pandemic, structural racism has become much more visible to the nation. We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.”

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J. Tinneny co-produced the film with Palmer. The musical documentary screened at film festivals and theaters across the country, including DCTV’s Firehouse, Three Rivers Arts Festival and Light Reel Film Fest, throughout May and June. Then on July 1, “The Blues Society” will be shown at the Hollywood Theater in Portland. Freestyle Digital Media negotiated an agreement to amass “The Blues Society” with Cultural Animal, LLC and Glen Reynolds of Circus Road Films.