MOVIE

Music Is My Life, Politics My Mistress: The Story of Oscar Brown Jr.

2005 · 110 min · Documentary

Oscar Brown Jr. amassed quite an impressive career in which he was by turns poet, playwright, singer, jazz musician, TV presenter, radio host and political activist throughout his remarkable life. But by the time he died in 2005, at 78, he was broke and forgotten. With a mix of archival footage, music, interviews and animation, Donnie L. Betts' labor-of-love documentary portrays Brown as a lyrical genius whose work never received its due because of his outspoken Black Power politics.