PBS announced that it will be releasing a documentary about famed singer/songwriter Roberta Flack. The network stated that Flack will be the subject of an installment in its long-running “American Masters” series next year.
“American Masters: Roberta Flack” will premiere nationwide on PBS on Jan. 24, 2023. It will also be available to view via the PBS video app. The documentary will chronicle the life and career of the four-time Grammy Award winner.
From “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” to “Killing Me Softly” and beyond, Roberta Flack gave voice to a global soundtrack of beauty and pain, love and anguish, hope and struggle. American Masters: Roberta Flack illuminates where reality, memory and imagination mix to present music icon Roberta Flack, a brilliant artist who transformed popular culture, in her own words. With exclusive access to Flack’s archives of film, performances, interviews, home movies, photos, hit songs and unreleased music, the film documents how Flack’s musical virtuosity was inseparable from her lifelong commitment to civil rights. American Masters: Roberta Flack premieres nationwide Tuesday, January 24 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS.
Flack is a history-making musical icon and the film will show her journey from a young piano prodigy who received a full scholarship to Howard University to her national success.
The film will reportedly touch on her collaborations with Donny Hathaway and showcase how she got her big break while moonlighting as a singer and musician at a Washington, D.C., nightclub.
Throughout her extraordinary career, Flack established hit-making mentorships with Donny Hathaway, Luther Vandross and Peabo Bryson. Flack’s indelible career has spanned decades and produced countless hit songs, including “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “The Closer I Get to You.” The film chronicles how, throughout her pioneering career, Flack used her powerful platform to sing about the Black experience in America. She battled opinions of her mixed-race marriage, confronted blatant racism within the recording industry and created space for Black women to produce their own music. She released her latest project, Running, at age 80 in 2018, and was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2020 Grammy Awards.
