Take Me to the River
'Take Me to the River' is a feature film celebrating the inter-generational and inter-racial musical influence of Memphis in the face of pervasive discrimination and segregation. Music legends from Stax records and Memphis also mentor and pass on their musical knowledge to contemporary artists in this documentary.
20 October 1971, Long Beach, California, USA
3 October 1947, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
7 April 1947, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
August 22, 1941 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA
31 January 1944, Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA
11 July 1958, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
11 March 1969, Chicago, Illinois, USA
January 16, 1939 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA
23 July 2002, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
16 November 1945, Germantown, Tennessee, USA
12 November 1944, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
October 23, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
10 July 1939, Chicago, Illinois, USA
20 August 1942, Covington, Tennessee, USA
November 10, 1933 in Homer, Louisiana, USA
January 27, 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee, USA
8 October 1941, Greenville, South Carolina, USA
September 25, 2014
A moving tribute to a grand piece of Americana.
September 25, 2014
Three of the guitar marvels shown here - Hubert Sumlin, Teenie Hodges and Skip Pitts - have died since filming. This is a marginal but worthwhile footnote to their legacy.
February 27, 2016
While you may stick around for the stories, the film's true draw is the music.
September 25, 2014
It feels like a mishmash effort overall, more a home movie than a theatrical release. That's fine. If you approach it on those terms, you can't help but feel the love, too.
January 13, 2015
Take Me to the River is a good-spirited but patchy documentary, less about dropping beats and more about dropping names.
September 25, 2014
Flawed as it is, "River" reminds us where all the great music came from.
September 25, 2014
The premise for this documentary couldn't be more stilted, and some of the matchups are enough to make you wince. But there are a few striking intergenerational moments.
September 25, 2014
While those sessions result in full songs, some of the most memorable, iconic tunes in music history, this film never coalesces into something greater than a collection of mildly interesting pieces.
September 11, 2014
"Take Me to the River" is at its most interesting when zeroing in on the back-and-forth between musicians of different eras ...
September 18, 2014
"Take Me to the River" includes just enough history of the civil rights era to lend it gravitas. The color-blind recording practices of studios like Stax were an anomaly at the time and are well worth noting.
