Wattstax

Wattstax
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Mel Stuart
Produced by	Larry Shaw Mel Stuart
Starring	The Staple Singers Richard Pryor Carla Thomas Rufus Thomas Luther Ingram Kim Weston Johnnie Taylor The Bar-Kays Isaac Hayes Albert King
Cinematography	John A. Alonzo
Production companies	Stax Films Wolper Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	February 4, 1973 (1973-02-04)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,560,000 (rentals)[1]

Wattstax was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles.^[2][3] The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. The concert's performers included all of Stax's prominent artists at the time. The genres of the songs performed included soul, gospel, R&B, blues, funk, and jazz. Months after the festival, Stax released a double LP of the concert's highlights, Wattstax: The Living Word. The concert was filmed by David L. Wolper's film crew and was made into the 1973 film titled Wattstax. The film was directed by Mel Stuart and nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974.

In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".