Originally billed as the “black Woodstock," Wattstax was a seven-hour concert for the benefit of the Watts Summer Festival, held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. More than 100,000 people were in attendance; among the artists who performed were the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays, Albert King, Rufus Thomas (leading the multitudes in the funky chicken), and Isaac Hayes.
WATTSTAX the film intersperses concert footage with candid commentary by Watts residents and, in brilliant form, Richard Pryor ("feral in his swiftness; you can see the routines cooking up in his head," wrote Elvis Mitchell in “The New York Times"). It was directed by Mel Stuart, who also produced the film with Larry Shaw (Al Bell and David L. Wolper were executive producers).
The new edition of WATTSTAX restores the film's original ending -- Isaac Hayes's performance of “Shaft" and “Soulsville" (which had to be cut prior to the 1973 theatrical run because of a re-recording rights dispute). In addition, the new film has a superb audio track completely remastered from the original concert 2-inch 16-track masters and is being released in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. The WATTSTAX restoration was a collaboration between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Fantasy, Inc. Work on the picture and sound was completed at the Saul Zaentz Film Center in Berkeley, with Tom Christopher serving as restoration picture editor; Stephen Hart and James Austin were re-recording mixers.
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