The documentary A Taste of Heaven: The Ecstatic Song & Gospel of Maestro Raymond Anthony Myles, will be presented at the New Orleans Film Festival that kicks off on November 3, 2022. Written, produced and directed by Grammy Award-winning producer Leo Sacks, who was a first-hand witness to Myles trials and triumphs before his murder in October 1998. Sacks also produced the Raymond Myles studio music album A Taste of Heaven.

Myles was an easy, breezy, flamboyant entertainer who liked nothing better than feeling the music and letting loose. He was a big man, his physique necessitated by his full-bodied spirit. Myles was campy at times, loose and inspired; at other times, Myles could reach down deep into his soul and give a part of himself over to the audience. It’s these times that his fans will remember most—the defining, cathartic moments when Myles would electrify everyone standing in the Jazz Fest Gospel Tent—explosive performances that were one of the great pageants of New Orleans soul. Influenced by the church as much as by Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, Myles had the unique ability to transform a diverse audience into his own personal congregation.

The documentary has been years in the making and features interviews with Myles’s friends, fans and confidants, including Allen Toussaint, Cyril Neville, Irma Thomas and Big Freedia.

Along with Sacks, the executive producers also include Harry Shearer and his wife Judith Owen, Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire and Cyril E. Vetter.

The film was the recipient of a 2022 Lavine Fellowship from the Better Angels Society, the Library of Congress, Ken Burns Prize For Film.

The screening is scheduled for Saturday, November 5, at 8 p.m. at Second Line Stages, 800 Richard Street in New Orleans.