AGILE, MOBILE, HOSTILE: A YEAR WITHIN ANDRE WILLIAMS Documentary Competition

A larger-than-life presence, magnetic raconteur and blues-soaked dandy, Andre Williams is o singular figure in American music. On the backs of hit 45s like Bacon Fat, Jail Bait and Shake a Tail Feather, Williams become on R&B star in the late 1950s and early 1960s. At Motown he mentored young Stevie Wonder and worked with Berry Gordy But by the 1980s , “Mr. Rhythm” was panhandling on the streets of Chicago. These days, Williams churns out a torrent of new material, often recording with Jon Spencer and releasing through Mississippi ‘s Fat Possum Records, and tours the world performing to fans one-third his age. Debonair and mercurial, fond of his rum and female company, Williams is charisma incarnate. But as he pushes 70, the toll of drugs and alcohol batter his mind and body. Add to that, money woes. Tracking Williams through o tumultuous year that takes him from Wilmette, Illinois, to Croatia to New Orleans and to Los Angeles and plenty of other stops, this debut documentary from Tricia Todd and Eric Matthies offers on intimate portrait of the self-styled “Block God father” on and off stage.