Songs of Black Folk (2025)

-Written by John Cajio.

2025 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW!

Songs of Black Folk is a self-indulgent affair that seems to struggle with a bit of an identity crisis to boot. There’s a lot I want to like about it, but I can’t help but find myself ultimately unhappy and left with a lot of questions after watching the short documentary.

Songs of Black Folk attempts to tell the story of the Juneteenth festival of the same name in Seattle. As the story goes (and is painstakingly explained several times over in the early stages of the film), Rev. Dr. Leslie Braxton wants to bring a musical celebration of Juneteenth to the Pacific Northwest—an area that he states doesn’t embrace black culture the way he wished it would. After President Joe Biden makes Juneteenth a national federal holiday, he sets about pushing for a big celebration of black culture in the region to coincide with the newly minted holiday. He recruits his nephew, Maestro Ramón Braxton, a music director and composer working in the New York City area at the time to develop the show. 

I found myself at odds with the documentary. It’s pretty self-indulgent. Rev. Dr. Braxton and Maestro Braxton are the only folks to be interviewed. Meanwhile, a show of the scope and sequence of “Songs of Black Folk” (the title of the documentary is taken from the title of the show) involves an immense number of folks. It would have been fantastic to get some perspective from a handful of the musicians and some of the backstage folks that are just as essential to a show’s success as the face of the show. And perhaps some audience members, too. Even where there's B-roll footage involving members of the Braxton family, the focus is pretty much entirely on either the good Reverend Doctor or the Maestro. On the other hand, when the documentary focuses on the show itself coming together and the execution of that show, I feel like it really wants to shine in those moments. It’s clear from the archival performance footage that the musicians are quality players and that the audience was thrilled with the show. 

There’s also this odd dichotomy that the film seems to follow, like it’s trying to tell two stories when it really only has time to tell just one. There’s a pretty strong focus on Maestro Braxton’s upbringing. His parents had him when they were quite young, and his father (the Rev. Dr.’s brother) spent periods of time in prison, so he was raised primarily by his mother’s grandparents. His grandmother took him to church choir rehearsals and let him play instruments, but not football. A little contextual background information is always good to know, but much of it was unnecessary and distracted from what I thought was supposed to be the focus of the documentary: putting on the big show. 

For a documentary ostensibly about putting on this show for the first time in the Seattle area, there’s not a ton of time spent on getting the show organized. Sure, there was a brief scene of Maestro Braxton’s initial struggles to compose music for the show, and there were a few seconds worth of rehearsals shown. But the resolutions of these issues are effectively glossed over. There’s nothing of substance shown from the rehearsal process. There’s virtually nothing discussed about the logistics of securing rehearsal space, the performance venue, advertising the show, meeting with local government officials, etc. In other words, where is the showing of the collaborative effort of putting the show on? As someone who has put similar events on—just on a smaller scale—these things don’t happen overnight nor do they happen by themselves. 

There is a lot to want to like about Songs of Black Folk, but the self-indulgent nature of its only two human subjects in the documentary hinder it quite a lot. Songs of Black Folk is a film that mostly does not suck. 

Directed by Justin Emeka & Haley Watson.

Starring Rev. Dr. Leslie Braxton & Maestro Ramón Braxton.

5/10 = WORTH THE RISK, BUT YOU’VE BEEN WARNED (IT MOSTLY DOES NOT SUCK)