Seven years after the Watts riots, Stax Records brings the Los Angeles Coliseum to capacity for a benefit concert meant to mark the anniversary and give the neighborhood something to celebrate. The film cuts between the stage and the community around it: Rufus Thomas gets the crowd to spill onto the field during "Do the Funky Chicken," Isaac Hayes closes in chains and a gold chest plate, and the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays, and Albert King all get full performances rather than snippets. Richard Pryor's interstitial monologues, filmed separately, work as a running commentary on race, poverty, and the concert itself, sharper and blunter than anything said on stage. Interviews with Watts residents, shot in barbershops and on porches, thread through the music and keep the film grounded in the neighborhood the concert was staged for. Directed by Mel Stuart, it plays as both a straight concert film and a document of a specific place and moment, less interested in spectacle than in what the crowd is actually feeling that day.