Past screening

Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me

Directed by: Olivia Lichtenstein
Runtime: 1hr 46min Year: 2018
Watch trailer

Details

Directed by: Olivia Lichtenstein
Runtime: 1hr 46min Year: 2018
Country: United Kingdom

Having broken away from Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes to pursue his solo career, Teddy Pendergrass was on the cusp of super-stardom - but his position in music history was thrown into uncertainty by a devastating accident.

Archive footage, interviews, and reconstruction tell the story of soul singer, Teddy Pendergrass, from his childhood to the height of his fame. Having learnt how to sing in church as a child, and inspired by Jackie Wilson’s performances at the Uptown Theatre, Pendergrass joined the Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, but left after he realized he was being taken for a ride – the voice people believed was Harold Melvin’s was in fact Teddy’s.

Pendergrass drove women wild with his performances, but faced relentless pressure from the Philadelphia police. After a devastating car accident, Pendergrass’s path dramatically shifted. With bursts of his own personal diaries which he recorded on tapes, and great interviews with figures such as Questlove, this is a fascinating film about a musician whose legacy is not as known as it should be.