Deep City: The Birth of the Miami Sound

Deep City: The Birth of the Miami Sound tells the story of how two musical geniuses created the first black-owned record label in Florida and changed the face of soul music in Miami forever.

This one-hour film explores the early days of soul music in Florida, the era’s pioneers and their lasting contributions to the broader American musical landscape.
 

During the mid-1960s two musical geniuses Willie Clarke and Johnny Pearsall created the record label called Deep City Records.  Both from the streets of Miami, Clarke and Pearsall honed their  business and musical skills learned in college. From the back room of Johnny’s Record Store located in Overtown, they went on to change the sound of soul music in Miami and eventually the country.
 

It was Deep City Records that brought local talent to the forefront, including singers Helene Smith and Betty Wright, groups such as Frank Williams & the Rocketeers and Johnny Killens & The Dynamites, guitarist/singer legend Willie “Little Beaver” Hale and Willie Clarke’s songwriting partner and singer Clarence “Blowfly” Reid.
 

"Deep City" delves into the life and times of these groundbreaking producers, their label, the artists they spawned and the remarkable era in which they accomplished it.

Deep City: The Birth of the Miami Sound has been well received by notable film festivals, such as SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX, Cleveland International Film Festival and Miami International Film Festival.

Tuesday, September 23 at 9 p.m. PREMIERE

Repeats:

Thursday, September 25 at 9 p.m. | Friday, September 26 at 8 p.m. | Saturday, September 27 at 2 p.m. | Saturday, September 27 at 10 p.m.

 
 
http://youtu.be/RKiJ_DOhrDg

Marlon Johnson is a six-time Emmy award-winning producer and director with many years of experience in the film and television industry. A native of Miami, Marlon has a B.S. in Communications with a special focus on Motion Pictures and Anthropology from the University of Miami in Coral Gables.  

In 2005, he was commissioned by the Florida Film Consortium to co-produce and direct the documentary Coconut Grove: A Sense of Place, which examined race-based gentrification in the West Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, the historic home of the first Bahamian immigrants. In 2006, The Ford Foundation commissioned Marlon to direct the short documentary, Breaking the Silence, which explored the rising rate of HIV infection in the Black-American south. Marlon would later use his varied production skills to help build the first all HD Caribbean television station in the U.S., TeleAmerica Broadcasting Network. Marlon continues to create and is currently involved in several projects as an independent producer with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. He recently completed a feature length documentary entitled, Deep City: The Birth of the Miami Sound, which chronicles the 1960’s Soul Music scene in Miami.  The film is scheduled to air on PBS later this year.

Dennis Scholl is the Vice President / Arts for the Knight Foundation. He oversees the foundation's national arts program, including the Knight Arts Challenge and Random Acts of Culture. He is well known as a collector of contemporary art for over three decades.Dennis is also the founder of a series of initiatives dedicated to building the contemporary art collections of museums, including the Guggenheim, the Tate Modern and the Miami Art Museum. He is a three time regional Emmy winner for his work in cultural documentaries. Dennis is also the co-founder of Betts and Scholl, an award winning wine project.In 2012, he was a Harvard University Advanced Leadership Fellow, focusing on the role of culture in community engagement. Dennis is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. Previously, he was a practicing attorney and CPA.

A New Yorker by way of Jamaica, Chad Tingle is an Emmy award-wining producer, who earned a BS in Communications with a focus in Film/Video Production from the University of Miami. Mr. Tingle’s professional experience includes work on T.V. commercials, music videos, corporate industrials, narratives and documentary films.  He has produced and directed several documentary shorts in the Miami area. In 2005, he was commissioned by the Florida Film Consortium to co-produce and direct the documentary Coconut Grove: A Sense of Place, which examined race-based gentrification in the West Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, the historic home of the first Bahamian immigrants.

Mr. Tingle is something of a Florida cultural anthropologist as he continues to document and explore issues relative to his community. He recently Co-Produced/Directed a feature length documentary entitled, Deep City: The Birth of the Miami Sound, which chronicles the 1960’s Soul Music scene in Miami.  The Film is scheduled to air on PBS later this year.

You can purchase a DVD copy here* »