Mavis! film review: Casting light on American musical history

(PG) Jessica Edwards, 80 mins

Gospel singer Mavis Staples is an immensely colourful and lively figure (Getty Images)

"I am not as frisky as I used to be – but I feel like I am!" gospel singer Mavis Staples, now in her 70s, declares early on in this documentary about her life and career. She is an immensely colourful and lively figure with an extraordinarily deep, resonant voice. What makes the film so rich, though, is how much the light it casts on American musical history.

The Chicago-raised singer, who performed with her family in the Staples Family, has a very wide range of admirers. Everyone from Bob Dylan (who once wanted to marry Mavis) and Bonnie Raitt to Chuck D from Public Enemy express their admiration for her. She met Martin Luther King: "If he can preach it, we can sing it", is how her father Pop Staples summed up King's civil rights message.

Her music provides a link between Southern and Chicago blues, between gospel and R&B, folk and jazz. Director Jessica Edwards's approach is conventional, but the subject matter is fascinating and the music itself couldn't be more rousing.