The Changin’ Times of Ike White (Daniel Vernon, 2019): USA

Reviewed by Scott Kipp at SBIFF 2020.

The Changin’ Times of Ike White is an interesting documentary about a man rising above his problems and overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles to reach fame and achieve his dreams. I don’t want to ruin the experience for you by telling you what happened, but the crowd loved it.  I have never heard so many cheers of jubilation in a movie theater.

The footage that the director Daniel Vernon captured is almost unbelievable. They have some exclusive footage inside prison and throughout Ike’s life. Ike’s guitar playing, masculinity and mastery of many instruments was impressive. I’ve heard of people mastering one instrument, but Ike could play bass, drums, violin and compose! He is a virtuoso at so many things. Ike is like a super-hero in real life and he could sing like a bird!

When Ike sang Super Duper Plastic Man, I about fell out of my chair.  HE WAS AMAZING!  Women in the audience were fawning over him and one even threw her bra at the screen. I thought I was seeing hysteria like the Beatles got in the 60s!

This movie was an interesting mix of home videos, TV news reports from KABC in Los Angeles and interviews. I particularly liked the videos of the mobile recording studio that they took into the prison to record Ike. It was unreal that they would bring food into the prison and feed the starving inmates. I have an RV that I’m modifying and turning into a mobile movie studio, so I can relate to the challenges they overcame to make the recordings and the film.

Ike’s capabilities were world class and people recognized it immediately. He was so good that other people would go out of their way to help him. The warden must have been very farsighted to let him record in prison. Releasing albums while in prison was a great way to support Ike’s future career. That Ike could persuade people to let him do extraordinary things like that shows how amazing he was.  It was like Ike created his own reality inside the prison.

The documentary had many amazing twists and turns that were expertly captured in amazing detail. The movie inspired me and I highly recommend this amazing film!