Average White Band Feature Doc In The Works; Warner Music Entertainment Distributing In North America

EXCLUSIVE: Sky, Warner Music Entertainment and Screen Scotland are collaborating on a feature doc profiling the unique legacy of Scottish funk sensation Average White Band, with Warner taking North American distribution.

Directed by Anthony Baxter (Eye of the Storm), Montrose Pictures’ Average White Band: Soul Searching [working title] commemorates 50 years since breakthrough single “Pick Up the Pieces” and is being made in collaboration with four-time Oscar-nominated Kartemquin Films, Bulletproof producer Vertigo Films and former Channel 4 entertainment boss Stuart Cosgrove, amongst others.

Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Ben E. King and a young Barack Obama were amongst the group’s early admirers, and the group’s legendary appearances on Soul Train were followed by a string of R&B hits and Grammy nominations. The film will blend archival footage with fresh interviews to chronicle the band’s trajectory. The documentary announcement comes as the current version of Average White Band continues its farewell tour, which has already included landmark venues such as the Royal Albert Hall in London, Edinburgh’s Usher Hall and the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow.

Baxter won a BAFTA Scotland Award for Eye of the Storm about pioneering landscape artist James Morrison. His 2011 feature, You’ve Been Trumped, won awards at the Sheffield, Hamptons, Denver and Sedona International Film Festivals.

“Sky Arts audiences love great music docs with a layered story, so the opportunity to board this feature doc on the funkadelic Average White Band was simply too good to be true,” said Jack Oliver, Sky’s co-production boss. “Director Anthony Baxter has an ambitious vision for the piece and assembled great co-production partners to the project.”

Stacy Robinson, Artistic Director at Kartemquin Films, added: “We are thrilled to collaborate with Director, Anthony Baxter on this film. Average White Band isn’t just a band, it’s a testament to the cultural crossroads where soul, funk, and rhythm resonate across generations, continents, and race.”

The documentary’s exec producers include Cosgrove, Mark Thomas and Dani Carlaw for Screen Scotland. The production team features Allan Niblo for Vertigo Films and award-winning Birth of Gospel Music producer Stacy Robinson.