Shirley Clarke: Ornette: Made in America

This revealing portrait of Ornette Coleman captures his 30-year evolution as a jazz performer and composer. Fascinating documentary footage, dramatised scenes and some of the first music video-style segments ever made are used to chart Coleman’s artistic journey. The film chronicles his life, from his boyhood in segregated Texas to his emergence as a cultural pioneer and world-class icon. It vividly depicts the history of jazz and the fertile creative exchange that illuminated 1960s and 1970s America.

Ornette: Made in America, dir. Shirley Clarke, USA 1985, 85 mins.