Langston Hughes African American Film Festival 2009

Acclaimed musician Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong is renowned for a lifetime of jazz, blues, folk and country music. In P.O.V.'s first season, he was the subject of Terry Zwigoff's "Louie Bluie," and he is the first person to reappear in the series. Armstrong's roots in America's musical past, his accomplished musicianship, and his sly and charming personality led the National Endowment for the Arts to honor him as a "national treasure." But when Armstrong met Barbara Ward, a sculptor 30 years his junior, a new chapter of his life and art unfolded.Sweet Old Song, a film by Leah Mahan, is the story of Armstrong and Ward's courtship and marriage - a unique partnership that has inspired an outpouring of art and music. This creative work draws on nearly a century of African American experience, beginning with Armstrong's vivid stories and paintings of his childhood in a segregated town in Tennessee.