B.B. King: The Life of Riley

Riley B. King was born to a family working the cotton fields of Mississippi. He learned the guitar there, started playing on the radio in Memphis, and took the name B.B. King there. Over a career of more than sixty years he played hundreds of concerts a year. The documentary tells that road from beginning to end. Morgan Freeman narrates Jon Brewer's documentary, with Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Bono and Bruce Willis speaking in it. The film also gives the social ground the blues came out of: the segregation laws, farm labour, and the obstacles Black musicians met on tour. King's own account is used alongside the archive footage. It runs over two hours.