When H.E.R. won an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Judas and the Black Messiah” in 2021, she used her acceptance to thank some of her biggest influences, including Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, and Curtis Mayfield. But when articles about her speech began popping up online, she noticed that Mayfield was the name that websites always cut from the headlines.
That experience convinced H.E.R. that Mayfield, a soul legend whose legacy spanned ’60s hits with The Impressions to a solo career that included the influential “Super Fly” soundtrack, hadn’t received the appropriate recognition from modern audiences. She attempts to rectify the problem with her directorial debut, “The Makings of Curtis Mayfield,” a documentary that sees her join an A-list roster of her musical idols to discuss Mayfield’s ongoing legacy.
As the film tells it, Mayfield was ahead of the curve on just about everything. After enjoying commercial success with The Impressions in the early ’60s, he became one of the first major artists to sing about issues like Civil Rights, capturing the social justice movements of the 1960s with anthems like “Keep on Pushing” and “People Get Ready.” He was releasing protest albums before Marvin Gaye dropped “What’s Going On,” started his own record label to keep Black artists in control of their destinies, and helped create the sounds of the ’70s with his work in Blaxploitation cinema. He created many of the sounds that fueled hip-hop music in the form of samples, and empowered artists of all stripes with his willingness to break traditional songwriting rules. In other words, he was a legend who more than earned the documentary treatment.
After quickly bringing audiences up to speed with a bit of historical context, H.E.R. devotes the bulk of the film to conversations in recording studios with people who love Mayfield as much as she does. She listens to “One Love” with Stephen Marley while discussing Mayfield’s influence on his reggae icon father, listens to Mary J. Blige explain why “Super Fly” was such an authentic portrayal of the Black community’s emotions in the early ’70s, hears Tom Morello explain how much of Rage Against the Machine’s jams used Mayfield’s music as a blueprint, and laughs with Dr. Dre about the anachronistic rules that ’60s recording studios tried to enforce while listening to archival tapes of Mayfield. The free-flowing conversations begin with Mayfield, but often turn to larger ideas about the evolving nature of Black creative expression.
Nobody comes out of “The Makings of Curtis Mayfield” looking better than H.E.R. — a sincere compliment that the artist might be disappointed by, as her desire to shine the spotlight on Mayfield seems genuine. But her screen presence and eagerness to engage with music history is infectious, and extended cuts of her conversations with her idols could probably fill a limited series that had nothing to do with Mayfield. Her friends are quite endearing too, offering anecdotes that prove their enthusiasm for Mayfield’s sound hasn’t diminished in the decades since they first encountered him as teenagers.
It’s understandable that the documentary is titled “The Makings of Curtis Mayfield,” a clear homage to Mayfield’s iconic song “The Makings of You.” But the name doesn’t quite fit the substance of the film, which ultimately says less about the things that shaped Mayfield than the people his music shaped. H.E.R. devotes an obligatory percentage of the film to archival footage, but the historical elements of the film are nothing particularly special. Where it really soars is in its portrayal of the collaborative musical culture that Mayfield worked so hard to establish, offering irrefutable evidence that it continues to this day.
In a way, that might be the most appropriate tribute to Mayfield of all. From the Impressions to Blaxploitation, he left behind a legacy of Black artistic innovation that eventually touched every sphere of pop culture. The world is not exactly lacking music documentaries that reverentially recap the moments that shaped an artist’s career, and “The Makings of Curtis Mayfield” separates itself from a saturated niche by focusing on the ways that its late subject is still shaping our world.
Grade: B
“The Makings of Curtis Mayfield” premiered at SXSW 2025. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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