Our Great Day: A Bond with Houston Blues

The public is invited to attend the premiere of a new documentary, Our Great Day: A Bond with Houston Blues. The documentary pays tribute to the rich African American blues heritage of the largest city in Texas by tracing the unlikely relationship between a cast of colorful characters and a Chicago-born photographer now living in Ireland.

The primary focus is a 1998 reunion of almost 80 musicians for a group portrait, an event staged in an historic Third Ward building constructed by Temple Beth Israel, the state’s oldest Jewish congregation. Yet the larger story incorporates additional video produced (in Houston and in Ireland) between 1995 and 2018. Ultimately, Our Great Day blends diverse elements of local history - musical, socio-ethnic, even entrepreneurial and architectural - with blues performances, interviews with artists and insiders, and personal reflections by and about a fortunate photographer and his transatlantic connection to the original blues people of Houston.

Directed and produced by Rubén Durán / Storyline by Roger Wood
Inspired by and featuring photography by James Fraher
CAB 95 films, 2019 (52 minutes)

The film screening is cohosted by HCC and the Houston Blues Society and takes place at San Jacinto Memorial Building Auditorium. Free parking is available in HCC lots (parking lots 2,3 and 13 are closest to the auditorium).