Best movies like Billy Preston: That's The Way God Planned It

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Billy Preston: That's The Way God Planned It . If you liked Billy Preston: That's The Way God Planned It then you may also like: What Men Want, Night of the Quarter Moon, Ray, Jesus Is King, Joe & Caspar: Hit The Road USA and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

With his signature gospel sound on the Hammond B3, Billy Preston doublehandedly elevated the greatest artists of his time – from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones, from Aretha Franklin to Eric Clapton, from Ray Charles to Barbra Streisand to Sly and the Family Stone. In our film, we explore Billy's career and influence on generations of musicians, as he scored several number one hits of his own and became one of the most sought-after musicians in the world. He did all of this as a soul divided -- by his deep roots in the church, in constant conflict with his identity as a gay Black man, searching for a family of his own that would accept him for who he was.

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What Men Want

Magically able to hear what men are thinking, a sports agent uses her newfound ability to turn the tables on her overbearing male colleagues.

Night of the Quarter Moon

A POW marries a woman he meets in Mexico. Controversy erupts when people find out that she's one-quarter black.

Ray

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.

Jesus Is King

Filmed during summer 2019, Jesus Is King brings Kanye West’s famed Sunday Service to life in the Roden Crater, visionary artist James Turrell’s never-before-seen installation in Arizona’s Painted Desert. This one-of-a-kind experience features songs arranged by West in the gospel tradition along with new music from his forthcoming album.

Joe & Caspar: Hit The Road USA

Joe and Caspar are upping the ante, with a new bigger and braver road trip across the United States. This time the boys will travel 2,000 miles competing against each other on a bigger scale, but can they really earn their stars and stripes with the challenges they face along the way? From American footballers and ranch hands, to astronauts and muscle men, who will be crowned the all-American winner of Hit The Road USA?

Amazing Grace

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the recording of Aretha Franklin's best-selling album finally sees the light of day more than four decades after the original footage was shot.

The Blues Brothers

Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.

Blues Brothers 2000

Finally released from prison, Elwood Blues is once again enlisted by Sister Mary Stigmata in her latest crusade to raise funds for a children's hospital. Hitting the road to re-unite the band and win the big prize at the New Orleans Battle of the Bands, Elwood is pursued cross-country by the cops.

Taking Woodstock

The story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happening that it was. When Elliot hears that a neighboring town has pulled the permit on a hippie music festival, he calls the producers thinking he could drum up some much-needed business for his parents' run-down motel. Three weeks later, half a million people are on their way to his neighbor’s farm in White Lake, New York, and Elliot finds himself swept up in a generation-defining experience that would change his life–and American culture–forever.

Sullivan's Travels

Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.

Green Book

Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.

Is It Just Me?

A socially shunned columnist finds his romantic match online, but messaging under the wrong account causes his sleazy roommate’s picture to be forwarded, creating an identity mix-up.

This Christmas

This year Christmas with the Whitfields promises to be one they will never forget. All the siblings have come home for the first time in years and they've brought plenty of baggage with them. As the Christmas tree is trimmed and the lights are hung, secrets are revealed and family bonds are tested. As their lives converge, they join together and help each other discover the true meaning of family.

Respect

The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.

Shine a Light

Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in "Shine A Light," a look at The Rolling Stones." Scorsese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.

Standing in the Shadows of Motown

In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.

Twisted

This retelling of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist may be populated by drug pushers, pimps and prostitutes, but the book's classic themes remain the same. Caught under the thumb of a lecherous brothel owner, 10-year-old Lee befriends an aspiring musician named Angel who helps him escape his servitude and sends a maternal drag queen to vanquish the boy's enemies.

Abu

As a gay man, filmmaker Arshad Khan examines his troubled relationship with his devout, Muslim father Abu. Using family archives and movies, Khan explores his struggle with his identity and compares it to his parents attempts to fit into Canada.

Thunder Soul

THUNDER SOUL tells the true story of Conrad O. Johnson and the legendary Kashmere Stage Band. It was afros, pleated pants and platform shoes; James Brown, Sly Stone and Bootsy Collins. It was the ’70s, and an inner-city Houston high school was about to make history. Charismatic band leader, Conrad “Prof” Johnson would turn the school’s mediocre jazz band into a legendary, world-class funk powerhouse. Now, 35 years later, his students prepare to pay tribute to the man who changed their lives, the 92-year-old Prof. Some haven’t played their horns in decades, still they dust off their instruments determined to retake the stage to show Prof and the world that they’ve still got it.

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus

A 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The film is comprised of two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull. John Lennon and his fiancee Yoko Ono performed as part of a supergroup called The Dirty Mac, along with Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, and Keith Richards.

Mama's Boy

Traveling back to the places where he grew up, Dustin Lance Black explores his childhood roots, gay identity and close relationship with his mother, who overcame childhood polio, abusive marriages and Mormon dogma, while becoming Black’s emotional rock and, ultimately, the inspiration for his activism. With a wealth of personal photographs and candid memories from Black’s family, colleagues, and friends, this documentary embraces the personal to tell a universally hopeful tale of resilience and reconciliation through the power of love and shared stories.

First Person Singular: John Hope Franklin

Charles Kuralt takes an revealing look at the life and career of African-American historian John Hope Franklin in this profile of the Harvard-educated writer whose book From Slavery to Freedom spotlighted the role of blacks in building America. Though facing incredible obstacles, Franklin scaled the stone wall of racism to become a scholar and activist, helping Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King and others change a nation.

Billy Elliot: The Musical Live

In County Durham, England, 1984, a talented young dancer, Billy Elliot, stumbles out of the boxing ring and onto the ballet floor. He faces many trials and triumphs as he strives to conquer his family’s set ways, inner conflict, and standing on his toes in a musical that questions masculinity, gender norms and conformity.

Christmas Belles

Despite being successful in their careers, two 30-something BFFs never stop hearing that they both need a man before it's too late. When a handsome pastor arrives just in time to kick off the Christmas season, both ladies try to make a move-but as their hilarious attempts to one up each other keep growing, it will be up to their family to remind them what the holiday season is truly about.

Six by Sondheim

This intimate documentary explores the life and career of the stage legend Stephen Sondheim through six of his best-known songs.

Toots and the Maytals Reggae Got Soul

This is the never-before-told story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica, Toots Hibbert. It features intimate new performances and interviews with Toots, rare archive from throughout his career, and interviews with contemporaries and well-known admirers including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Cliff, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Marcia Griffiths and Paolo Nutini.

Prince: A Purple Reign

Part of BBC Four's Black Music Legends of the 1980s, this documentary explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionized the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as "1999," "Kiss," "Raspberry Beret" and "Alphabet Street." He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie "Purple Rain" in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continues to this day.

Kirk Franklin's A Gospel Christmas

When Olivia, a young assistant pastor, gets assigned to be a lead pastor at a new church a month before Christmas, she's fearful she can't manage the transition, including getting the choir ready to open the town's annual Winter Jamboree. Banding together with her new congregation, Olivia discovers a new home for herself, and even finds a little Christmas romance along the way!

Soul Hustler

Matthew Crowe, a whoring, pot-smoking, wandering singer teams up with a tent-show preacher. The preacher recognizes Mathew's charisma, and together they collect big donations delivering sermons with rocking gospel songs.Soon enough, Matthew lands a record deal, and the older man becomes the manager of Crowe's new act: Matthew, Son of Jesus. They hire a backup group of mustachioed rock musicians, who play in brown monks' robes, in contrast to Matthew's white robe and sandals. Their debut album becomes a huge hit so they go on a concert tour to promote it.

Eric Clapton: Across 24 Nights

In 1990 and in 1991 Eric Clapton played 24 nights at the Royal Albert Hall performing with different line-ups and sets featuring Blues, Rock, and a full Orchestra. The performances have become legendary to Eric Clapton fans. Over thirty years later this film, edited from the original footage and completely remastered in Dolby Surround Sound, captures for the first time the definitive performances across all the sets over both years. The film features 17 hits from across his repertoires showing Clapton at his most exhilarating, collaborating with top musicians.

Barbra Streisand: Back to Brooklyn

Barbra Streisand was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Still in her teens, she left home to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress. She went on to conquer the worlds of stage, screen, and music, winning the Tony Award, multiple Oscars, Emmys, and selling out concerts around the world. She's the most successful female recording artist in popular music history and the only singer to have a number-one album in five consecutive decades. This concert video, recorded on October 11th & 13th, 2012, captures Barbra's triumphant return to her hometown. With special guest Chris Botti and a thrilling duet with her son, Jason Gould, Barbra achieves yet another career milestone, proving along the way that you can take the girl out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the girl!

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart

The story of the triumphs and hurdles of brothers Barry, Maurice, and Robin Gibb, otherwise known as the Bee Gees. The iconic trio, who found early fame in the 1960s, went on to write over 1,000 songs and have 20 No. 1 hits throughout their career, transcending more than five decades of changing tastes and styles.

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Mike Figgis’ enthralling documentary about the turbulent life and career of Ronnie Wood, legendary rock guitarist and long-time member of The Rolling Stones.

The Soul of a Man

In "The Soul of A Man," director Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence (recreations of '20s and '30s events - shot in silent-film, hand-crank style), rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood" Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.

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