Cissy Houston — Sweet Inspiration
Region 1 (US & Canada only) DVD
A portrait of a remarkable musical artist who “sings both sides”. Cissy Houston may be belting out gutbucket rhythm and blues in a smoky bar at midnight on Saturday, but at dawn on Sunday she is back in church wailing with her gospel choir. We follow Cissy into the studio with David Bowie, onstage for a reunion with her legendary 60s R&B group, The Sweet Inspirations, and singing with her daughter, the late Whitney Houston, as well as into New Hope Baptist Church for an emotional gospel service where Cissy leads her soaring choir. “Cissy Houston–Sweet Inspiration” also features Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Tom Dowd, and Atlantic Records producers, Jerry Wexler, Arif Mardin, and Tom Down, commenting on the Gold Age of Soul and the complicated relationship between sacred and secular music in the Black community.
“Mesmerizing…… this is the story of a woman who has thought deeply about the roots of black music — whether expressed through commercial pop/R&B music or gospel.”
“[In] the film’s final sequence — in that joyful, sweat- and tear-fueled exhaustion, one encounters not only the power of faith and the strength of the black church, but also the grace of a remarkable person.”
Featuring: Cissy Houston, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross
Directed by Dave Davidson
25th Anniversary Special Edition DVD | 60 minutes
SCREENINGS: PBS National Broadcast, American Film & Video Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, and National Education Film & Video Festival
Production Funding provided by The American Film Institute and The National Endowment for the Arts