A Soul Journey

In the last 30 years, some of the greatest “legends” of Soul and R&B have performed at Porretta Soul in Italy, the greatest Soul music festival in the world. A Soul Journey is not just simply a music documentary, it is a film narrating many aspects of the intricate and delicate lives of these artists, and in particular, their artistic, human and emotional journeys to perform in such a small village lost in the Italian mountains. The film captures the incredible, yet fascinating cultural mix taking place during the festival, when artists coming from Memphis, Chicago and New Orleans, meet the people of a small Italian village, eager to welcome and support them in every possible way. In fact, during the festival, it is not uncommon to see local elderlies sitting at a cafe table with one of the stars in a pistachio suit and golden moccasins, playing cards and sipping a good glass of wine together ! We wanted to make this film look at the human aspects, the contrasts and paradoxes of these two very separate worlds. On the one hand , stars who have performed thousand of times in every corner of the world, and on the other, a settlement in the Italian Apennine Mountains, between Bologna and Florence, geographically renowned for its natural spas. Porretta gets a “second life” every summer as Soul and R&B fanatics congregate from various parts of Europe and Italy to witness a musical miracle, once again!