DN: FILM The Black Godfather
Unspooling like a tribute reel at the Kennedy Center Honors, chock-full of testimonials by friends-slash-fans gushing about its subject’s unequivocal wonderfulness, THE BLACK GODFATHER does an honorable job introducing Clarence Avant, an impresario few have heard of, and ushering him out of the shadows into the spotlight. This adoring Netflix doc—co-produced by Avant’s daughter and her husband, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s head of content, both of whom are talking heads—is as uncritical as it is informative, a portrait of the artist’s ally and fixer, a “celebrity’s celebrity,” “one of the biggest hearts in the universe,” a figure for whom “the seas part” when he moves and shakes. These are just a few encomiums showered on Avant—a promoter, manager, mentor, dealmaker, tastemaker and kingmaker—by those he supported and befriended, from Quincy Jones and Bill Withers, to Michael Jackson and Barack Obama, in director Reginald Hudlin’s two-hour testament.
As the doc begins and ends, Avant, a gray, slight 88, is on his way to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Joy does not overcome him. In interviews he is both humble and dismissive, forever the flinty, F-bomb-dropping businessman. “It’s all about numbers, nothing else. Love has nothing to do with it,” he replies to the notion that people come before profits. Others would disagree. The film sparkles with a galaxy of celebs—Jones, Obama, Bill Clinton, Snoop Dogg, Senator Kamala Harris, Hank Aaron, David Geffen, Cicely Tyson—who glow when talking about how Avant broke race barriers in music, film and politics, spotted hot musical talent (Withers, Babyface, TLC, Outkast) and, of course, personally helped them in their endeavors.
And, in some cases, helped them out of jams. Avant gave Clinton advice during his impeachment travails—never back down, never walk—and got Sean Combs out of jail more than once. “The only person who can help you” in these situations is Avant, says Jamie Foxx. “The guy’s a rock in every way,” Clinton says. Hence the nickname: the Godfather. The doc lavishes the love on Avant, rightly so. Yet the star remains distant, pragmatic, as cool and calculating as his sobriquet. “I don’t have problems,” Avant says. “I have friends.”