The Soul of a Man
Released: May 16, 2003Runtime: 103 min
Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence (recreations of '20s and '30s events - shot in silent-film, hand-crank style), rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.
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Cast & Crew
Top billed cast
Chris Thomas King
as Blind Willie Johnson
Keith B Brown
as Skip James
James Hughes
as H.C. Speirs
David F Hughes
as Art Laibly
Shayne Tingle
as Recording engineer
Joy Brashears
as Secretary
David Barnes
as Self
Beck
as Self - Featured Performer
James Blood Ulmer
as Self - Featured Performer
T Bone Burnett
as Self - Featured Performer
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