Ornette: Made In America

Shirley Clarke's Ornette: Made in America captures Ornette Coleman's evolution over three decades, chronicling his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon. The film explores the rhythms, images and myths of America seen through the eyes of an artist's ever-expanding imagination and experience. Clarke followed Ornette and his young son Denardo starting in the late 1960s and ending with a homecoming tribute in his hometown of Fort Worth in 1983 that featured a gala concert of his seminal Skies of America alongside performances with his Prime Time band. The innovative techniques that director Shirley Clarke (and producer Kathelin Hoffman Gray) employed in the film closely parallel Ornette's music - eschewing traditional documentary styles with breathtaking originality to reveal Ornette's equally extraordinary vision.