John Hurrell – 19 June, 2023

This stirring trans-Atlantic film and cleverly immersive ‘ecclesiastical’ installation—with its four pews and large black curtain—examines the evangelical and musical connections between a group of Black Baptist and Pentecostal churches in South London and West Philadelphia (often called ‘storefront’ churches).

We see informative interviews with the pastors and deaconesses, and performances from leading soloists, small choirs and congregations—who provide exuberant and passionate gospel singing. Images of revered remembered icons like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X (plus the Black Panthers) regularly appear in this fervent feminist community project that focusses on Black women—but not exclusively.

English filmmaker Ufuoso Essi (trained in Philadelphia, lives in London) mixes several film/video types in her forty minute examination of working class Black worship and exulted community faith, allowing the optical switches, restless movement, cutting rhythms, close-ups, site geographies and histories to regularly shift with the documentation / narrative.

One salient historical theme is that of survival strategies for the Philadelphia and London churches in the face of greater community secularisation, encroaching gentrification and higher taxes—with the young drifting away to leave an also diminishing older congregation. The Black Bottom district of Philadelphia underwent slum clearance in the sixties, and became gentrified when the professional classes moved in and institutions like universities were built. Some churches are located in that area. To help stall this crisis the Baptists have started to join forces with other denominations, and proactively consider new ways of broadening their congregations.

Music is therefore seen as a means of attracting wider audiences, mixing it with charismatic preaching that references Black experience and history, while also introducing musical bands to pull in the young, for initially gospel music had a prohibition on drums and dancing.

Of the featured performances, particularly evocative and vibrant are the renditions of Is My Living in Vain (with a ‘call and answer’ format) and If You Read God’s Letter. The harmonising voices (particularly the women’s) and trilling organ have a penetrating emotional impact, for the hypnotic physicality and rich textures of the vocalisations reach anybody who has more than a halfway interest in blues, field hollers, varieties of jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, slices of rock ‘n roll, or soul music.

The film’s soundtrack is an immensely pleasurable and powerful component of this fascinating study of demographic shifts. The project itself was produced and commissioned by Gasworks, London, alongside Te Uru and Le Magasin CNAC, Grenoble.

John Hurrell

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