Am I Black Enough for You? (2009)

The story of the singer who soared into the stratosphere with his breakout single "Me and Mrs. Jones", then plummeted back to Earth when his funky follow-up "Am I Black Enough for You?" proved dead on arrival. Billy Paul was a Philadelphia soul artist who could have easily been as big as Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield, but the radical lyrics of his sophomore single proved too polarizing for white America of the 1970s. In the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, amity and personal gain frequently took a backseat to political assertion, especially for African-Americans. Billy Paul had enjoyed international success with the soulful, almost soothing "Me and Mrs. Jones", and record executive Kenny Gamble was banking on the fact that America was prepared for the empowering message contained in "Am I Black Enough for You?" Not only did that gamble fail to pay off, but effectively crippled Paul's burgeoning career as well. In this documentary, filmmaker Goran Olsson explores how the singer's loving relationship with his longtime wife Blanche gave him the courage to endure even in the darkest of times, and offers an informative look the origins of soul music in the American Civil Rights Movement.