Synopsis

Go behind the scenes of an unforgettable recording session where an extraordinary group of musical artists come together to create a powerful new anthem to honor their ancestors and to celebrate Black lives. Featuring acclaimed New York musicians, singers, poets and a tap dance phenom, Song For Our People is a captivating look inside the creative process of collaborating artists, and an inspiring testament to the power of a committed community to create both art and social change.

The film tells the story of Mustapha Khan, a songwriter/producer, who sets out to immortalize what his late parents taught him about his obligation to his ancestors and the Black community. To do this he writes a song which imagines being asked by an ancestor who was once enslaved: “what have you done with your freedom?”  

This is the poignant question at the center of the film, and on the minds of the various artists he invites to the session to make the song come alive. As each musician comes in and lays down their tracks, they tell their own stories about what was similarly passed on to them about what it means at its core to be Black. Their words are powerful, and they do their work with reverence, as if the ancestors are there with them in the studio. 

Writer Trey Ellis calls the film: "A soul-stirring triumph! The exact movie America needs right now to replenish our collective soul. "Song For Our People" invites us in to witness the birth of a rousing new anthem."