| The Concert for Bangladesh | |
|---|---|
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:Concertforbangladeshmovieposter.jpg) US film poster | |
| Directed by | Saul Swimmer |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography |
|
| Edited by | Howard Lester |
| Music by | George Harrison, Phil Spector (producers) |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
| Countries | United Kingdom, United States[1] |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2.5 million (US/Canada)[2] |
The Concert for Bangladesh is a film directed by Saul Swimmer and released in 1972. The film documents the two benefit concerts that were organised by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar to raise funds for refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War, and were held on Sunday, 1 August 1971 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. As well as notable performances from Harrison and Shankar, the film includes "main performer" contributions from Harrison's fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Billy Preston and Leon Russell, and a surprise walk-on from Bob Dylan. Other contributing musicians include Ali Akbar Khan, Eric Clapton, the band Badfinger, Klaus Voormann, Jesse Ed Davis, Jim Horn and Jim Keltner.
The film was the final part of Harrison's "pioneering" aid project for the people of former East Pakistan,[3] following his "Bangla Desh" charity single, the UNICEF benefit concerts, and a triple live album of the event credited to "George Harrison and Friends". The Concert for Bangladesh was produced by The Beatles' Apple Films; after delays caused by problems with inadequate footage from the event, it opened in US cinemas in the spring of 1972. The film was released on DVD in 2005 accompanied by a newly created documentary feature, The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends, which included recollections from many of the project's participants and contextual input from then UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, US Fund for UNICEF president Charles Lyons and Live Aid founder Bob Geldof.
As with the live album, sales of the DVD release of the film continue to benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF.
- ^ "The Concert for Bangladesh", tcm.com (retrieved 30 January 2021).
- ^ Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p232. Please note figures are rentals accruing to distributors and not total gross.
- ^ The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 43.