[Lee Jong-gil's Film Reading] Black People Finding Their Own Voices

Director George C. Wolfe's 'Ma Rainey, She is the Blues'
'Mother of the Blues' Ma Rainey's Principles vs. Levy's New Challenge Emphasizing Joy
Original by 'America's Shakespeare' August Wilson, Harmony Through Music... Emphasizing a Life of Coexistence

1920 Chicago, USA. Popular Black singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) visits the studio to record a record. She arrives late and immediately bursts out in anger. The hot weather and a traffic accident have made her nerves sharp. White producer Irvin (Jeremy Shamos) cautiously approaches and shares his opinion about the song to be recorded.

"Ma, I was going to tell you, but Levi's (Chadwick Boseman) version is full of energy."

"I don't care what Levi did. Look at what he did to that song. I hate the way he sings it. I'm going to sing it the way it was originally. I even brought my nephew for the intro."

"These days, people want songs they can dance to. Levi's arrangement satisfies that desire. It excites people and helps them relieve stress."

"No matter what you say, I won't let you ruin my song. If people want that song, they can play it somewhere else. I'm going to sing my song, not Levi's. There's nothing more to discuss."

Directed by George C. Wolfe, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a film about the preservation and transformation of classic blues. The main conflict revolves around whether to record Ma's version, which faithfully follows Southern tradition, or Levi's version, which aligns with the times.

Ma Rainey (1886?1939) is known as the "Mother of the Blues." With her grand voice and simple yet dramatic tone, she sang the sorrows of Black people. Blues is music that expresses and soothes the pain experienced by Black people. Therefore, it has a collective character. Its roots lie in the work songs sung during slavery on cotton plantations. It weaves fragmented individual lives into a sense of community and expresses the discordant hardships of life as harmonious chords. It was the cry of the people suffering under the pain of racial discrimination.

The original playwright August Wilson (1945?2005) is considered the Shakespeare of American theater. In interviews during his lifetime, he stated that his works such as The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, and Fences are based on the ideas and characteristics that come from the blues. "Blues is a wellspring and a source of inspiration. It is primarily important because it leads Black people in America to a situation where they can discover themselves and contains their own cultural responses."

Wilson emphasizes the importance of passing down Black history and culture through the conflict between Ma and Levi. Levi easily transforms the blues into a jazz style suitable for dancing. Like white producers, he dismisses blues as a trend that has ended. In reality, blues was easily forgotten because generations like his showed rejection. Especially, the Black middle class, who tried to assimilate into white culture, avoided it. They moved according to power relations and faced an era of loss. Director Wolfe placed white jazz performances at the end of the film to awaken this reality.

Ma is displeased with the commercialization of blues by white people. Before recording, she says, "White people don't understand the blues. They know how to listen but don't know how it was born. They don't know that our lives are contained in the blues. It's not sung to feel good. It's sung to understand life. The blues help you open your eyes in the morning. They let you know you're not alone. Something created by the blues is filling this world. A world without blues would be empty. I am someone who fills that emptiness with something."

Wilson did not insist on strictly preserving the unique culture of blues. Rather, he advocated that in multicultural America, Black and white people should respect each other's cultures and seek coexistence. This is why he focused on the process of the blues' essence changing through Ma.

The white people in the film only pretend to understand Black people but still see them as objects of exploitation. A representative example is the scene where the studio owner Sturdyvant (Johnny Coyne) belatedly tells Levi that the song he wanted was not what he got. Contrary to the agreement, he arrogantly offers $5 per song as compensation.

Levi cannot contain his anger. However, he kills not Sturdyvant but innocent bandmate Toledo (Glynn Turman). This indicates that even Black people fail to unite. On the other hand, it can be interpreted as a process of rediscovering lost innocence and understanding oneself. Although it seems like imprisoning oneself with another guilt, with the addition of blues, it feels like a ritual cleansing. The death of Toledo and Levi's downfall emphasize the proper acceptance of tradition and change.

Director Wolfe expresses the possibility of this through the blues. Ma and the band members, who had conflicts even before recording, release their collective consciousness in the moments filled with blues. Each one truly feels the power of the blues. "Where did you learn to play bass? The bass was singing." "I matched it to Toledo. He pounded the piano with his long fingers." "That's why you came."