The Black Film Center/Archive
Louis Guida Collection
The Louis Guida Collection
features the complete
film footage and recordings used in the production of the filmmaker's
1992 documentary, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. The
award-winning film presents the life of blues singer and
songwriter the Rev. Arnold Dwight "Gatemouth" Moore, best
known for his hit, "Did You Ever Love a Woman?" The film
includes interviews and performances by the musician and preacher
Al Green, former NAACP Director Benjamin Hooks, blues great B.B.
King, and rhythm and blues veteran Rufus Thomas.
Winner of an American Film and Video Festival blue ribbon, the documentary explores the links and tensions of the sacred and secular in African American culture, as well as chronicling Moore's life from band leader to evangelical preacher. Described by King as "one of the greatest blues singers ever," Moore first gained fame singing in Chicago and Memphis during the 1930s and 1940s. Moore was converted to Christianity in a Chicago night club in 1949, causing him to leave the blues behind at the height of his career. He later became the South's first Black religious disc jockey and a pioneering civil rights radio reporter.
The Louis Guida Collection includes:
- Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (videocassette, VHS format, 70 min.).
- Complete film footage (on 16 mm film reels) used in the making of Saturday Night, Sunday Morning.
- Audiocassette copies and printed transcripts of interviews with people appearing in the documentary. Interviews include those with Gatemouth Moore and his wife Walterine Moore, Al Green, Benjamin Hooks, Rufus Thomas, and B.B. King.
Film footage highlights include:
- A spontaneous performance by 78-year-old Moore singing "Did You Ever Love a Woman?" with Rufus Thomas at Club Royale in Memphis.
- Moore preaching at churches in Memphis and Yazoo City and commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis (where the civil rights leader was assassinated).
- Footage of Memphis' Beale Street, the historic Beale Street Church, and the venerable Peabody Hotel.
Guida is an award-winning producer and director. His other documentaries include When You Make a Good Crop, a CINE Golden Eagle winner about Italian American farmers, and All Day and All Night, a New Directors/New Films entry about the music of Beale Street.
Date of Deposit
October 1993
