The 2020 Richmond International Film Festival has been postponed; check rvafilmfestival.com for updates. To find out more about "Digging for Weldon Irvine," visit weldonirvinefilm.com. (Photo courtesy Victorious DeCosta)
While it shares a title similar to the 2013 Oscar-winning “Searching for Sugar Man,” the new music documentary, “Digging for Weldon Irvine,” tells a different, more tragic true story about art and fame.
The semi-obscure Sixto Rodriguez, the subject of “Sugar Man,” lived to be rediscovered by American music fans after the film was released, but the multitalented Irvine, who grew up in Hampton, didn’t get that chance. An excellent film on Irvine’s complicated life, “Digging” had been scheduled to screen at the 2020 Richmond International Film Festival, which has been postponed in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s not the typical music documentary,” says director Victorious DeCosta, who planned to appear at the screening and exhibit some key memorabilia. “We wanted to show why he was special to music, but it’s really about the emotions of Weldon.”
“Digging for Weldon Irvine” is a powerful and affecting look at a chameleonic talent whose 40-year music journey found him exploring the spectrum of African American music. His was a searching soul, to say the least — at age 50, this jazz improviser reinvented himself as a rapper, “Master Well,” and collaborated with Mos Def and Talib Kweli.
DeCosta’s meticulous montage of archival footage, family photos and some astonishing music provide a complete portrait of a complex man. A thoughtful array of talking heads speak firsthand of Irvine’s skills and influence — from jazz heavyweight Billy Cobham to hip-hop notable Q-Tip.
“I wanted to give you more than you can get from reading liner notes,” says the Brooklyn-based filmmaker, who devoted four years to the documentary, his first feature. “I wanted it to probe the emotions of Weldon and the emotions of artists who are forgotten. I think it’s a story that plays well because you don’t need to be an artist, or a jazz head, to dig and relate to [it].”
To make “Digging,” which was mostly crowdfunded, DeCosta had to be vetted by the musician’s surviving family. “His two sisters wanted to know why I was telling this story, but I got the blessing from them and also his son, who lives in New York.” He adds that there are members of Irvine’s extended family who still live in Richmond and Lynchburg. “I would love to bring this film to them,” he says.
“We wanted to show why he was special to music, but it’s really about the emotions of Weldon.” —Victorious DeCosta, director of “Digging for Weldon Irvine”
Some mainstream listeners may know Irvine as a songwriter and sideman. With singer Nina Simone, he co-wrote the civil rights anthem “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” and served as the volatile Simone’s bandleader for a key stretch in the ‘60s — riveting live footage of the duo is one of the film’s highlights. But their falling-out was just as explosive. “Nina wrote him out of her autobiography,” DeCosta says, adding that she also tried to deny him writing credit. “On Aretha Franklin’s version of ‘Young, Gifted and Black,’ Weldon’s name wasn’t even listed on the original pressing.”
Irvine wrote more than 500 songs and 50 plays, started an independent record label, Nodlew (his name backwards), and cut a series of albums for RCA Records, such as “Cosmic Vortex — Justice Divine” and “Sinbad,” which are now considered funk-jazz classics and were much sampled by later artists.
But DeCosta really had to do some “digging” to tell the story of the prolific creator, who took his own life in 2002. “There was footage of Weldon, a lot of footage, but it wasn’t online, per se. There was very little of him on YouTube.” A key discovery was a 1977 student film about the artist shot by Irvine’s friend and fellow Hampton native Collis Davis, but even more revealing treasure was found in dozens of cassette tapes left behind — of unreleased compositions, diary entries, even tarot card readings.
“After a couple of years of gathering everything, I felt like I did know Weldon,” says DeCosta, who also plans an oral biography of Irvine, to be published this fall. “I felt like I was connected to him spiritually,” he says. “There’s no way you can get exposed to Weldon and not have a connection.”
