Mingus
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Thomas Reichman
Carolyn Mingus
Charles Mcpherson
Lonnie Hillyer
Walter Bishop
John Gillmore
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
This portrait of jazz bassist/composer Charles Mingus focuses on the night he and his 5-year-old daughter Carolyn are to be evicted from his loft studio for nonpayment of rent. (Mingus considers his eviction in November of 1966 as the last stop on a downward trend from the pinnacle of his acclaimed concert at the 1964 Monterey Jazz Festival; in the interim he started his own record company and suffered both financial and personal setbacks. At the time of the film Mingus is composing several scores for the Boston Ballet and asserts that he will never again appear in nightclubs.) In the loft, the unseen director asks Mingus questions about his life and beliefs, which Mingus may or may not answer. Intercut with the loft scenes are shots from his last engagement, one week before, at a jazz spot near Boston. Also included are scenes on Harlem streets, at an anti-Vietnam War demonstration where Mingus was asked to march with a contingent of Sioux Indians, and a scene from his historic Town Hall concert in 1961. The film ends with the jazzman's eviction, and his arrest on a mistaken charge of heroin possession.
Director
Thomas Reichman
Cast
Carolyn Mingus
Charles Mcpherson
Lonnie Hillyer
Walter Bishop
John Gillmore
Danny Richmond
Charles Mingus
Crew
Edward Barnett
Richard Clarke
Aries Di Mertzis
Sammy Fain
Oscar Hammerstein Ii
Jerome Kern
Jim Mcbride
William O'boyle
Lee Osborne
Robert Parent
Mars Potamkin
Thomas Reichman
Thomas Reichman
Charles Stewart
Billy Strayhorn
Jeff Strickler
Michael Wadley
Paul Francis Webster
Steve Weiss
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Filmed on location in New York City and at Lenny's in Peabody, Mass. The footage of Mingus before his eviction was shot in November 1966.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1997
Released in United States May 16, 1968
Released in United States 1997 (Shown in New York City (Film Forum) as part of program "60's Verite" November 14 - December 11, 1997.)
Released in United States May 16, 1968
