Scott Joplin

The film is about the life of the composer and pianist Scott Joplin. Joplin starts out playing piano around the country. At a piano competition the publisher John Stark notices him and things change. His pieces sell in great numbers and Joplin becomes a known name in ragtime. But that is not what he wants; he wants to write heavier music and to finish an opera. He spends years trying to get that opera published and is blocked every time. The film is about a composer caught between success and what he actually wants. Billy Dee Williams takes the lead, and Eubie Blake appears in the film, in Jeremy Kagan’s American film of 1977.