Cry of Jazz

The Cry of Jazz is a 1959 documentary film by Ed Bland that connects jazz to African American history. It uses footage of Chicagos black neighborhoods and performances by Sun Ra, John Gilmore, and Julian Priester interspersed with scenes of musicians and intellectuals, both black and white, conversing at a jazz club. It has been credited with predicting the urban riots of the 1960s and 70s, and has also been called the first HipHop film. In 2010, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The Library of Congress had this to say of the film and its significance

The Cry of Jazz is set in Chicago at the meeting of a jazz appreciation club of musicians and intellectuals, both Black and White. It is broken up into seven parts. Parts one, three, five, and seven center around conversations between the jazz club members. Parts two, four, and six are done in a documentary style and utilize footage of life in Chicago as well as of Sun Ras band performing the music. Alex, the films main character, serves as narrator during these sections. Although the film is nominally about jazz, jazz is utilized primaily as a metaphor through which to understand the African American experience.As the majority of the attendees of the jazz club leave, the crowd that remains is composed of two White men, Bruce and John, two White women, Natalie and Faye, and three Black men, Alex, Louis, and Bob. Alex overhears Bruce telling Natalie that rock and roll is jazz, which prompts a discussion about what jazz is. When Bruce asserts, jazz is merely the Negros cry of joy and suffering, the White characters protest, upset with Bruces implication that only Black people could have created jazz. Alex elaborates on Bruces point, explaining, the Negro was the only one with the necessary musical and human history to create jazz. ........

Source: Wikipedia