Music City Mondays: Michael Schultz

Michael Schultz’s underappreciated oeuvre celebrates the sights and sounds of Black life in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. His films serve as a showcase for a generation of great actors — often relegated to playing second fiddle to white leads in big studio pictures. A consummate master of documenting vibe, Schultz was there to tell the stories so often ignored or marginalized by Hollywood. These films are invaluable depictions of Black lives, Black joy and Black dreams which should have been cemented in the film canon years ago. And they’re also some of the greatest music films we’ve come across. Featuring Motown hits, disco classics and early rap, Schultz’s films are a veritable crash course in the evolution of modern music and how what we listen to as a community moves us and informs our sense of time and place.