Tribeca Film Festival Whoopi Goldberg, left, is the director of “I Got Somethin’ to Tell You,†the documentary about the comedian Moms Mabley, right.Looks at the lives of Richard Pryor and Gore Vidal, a peek inside the creative process of the Broadway actress Elaine Stritch â€" several documentaries at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival focus on notable figures in arts and entertainment. These include a name that may not be as well known but whose cultural impact was significant: Moms Mabley.
The comedian’s signature toothless grin, floppy hat and tell-it-like-it-is persona gained her mainstream attention late in life, though her career spanned more than 50 years. She rose to fame through her work on the chitlin’ circuit, the collection of stages around the country that employed black entertainers during segregation.
With “I Got Somethin’ to Tell You,†the comedian, actress and talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg goes behind the camera to chronicle the life of Moms Mabley. Ms. Goldberg talks with several artists who were influenced by Ms. Mabley, including Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Joan Rivers, Sidney Poitier, Jerry Stiller and Harry Belafonte. Last week, HBO acquired the rights to the documentary and plans to broadcast it later this year.
In an interview at the Tribeca Film Festival ahead of her film’s premiere, Ms. Goldberg spoke about how she first discovered Moms Mabley, the influence Ms. Mabley had on her career, and what a filmmaker does when there’s very little footage of her subject. Here are edited excerpts from that conversation.
You’ve had so many different jobs in the entertainment world, but this is the first time you’ve directed a feature. Why hadn’t you done it before?
I hadn’t wanted to. I was never interested, because I really have no attention span.
How did you come to know about Moms Mabley?
I was first introduced to her work as a kid. I knew there were records in the house that you weren’t supposed to touch. And then she would be on Ed Sullivan, and my mom would let us watch. And somehow she flew into my mouth. I don’t know how it worked, but she’s in there.
What challenges did you come across when making the documentary?
They didn’t film black performers back then. So most people don’t know Moms until the ’60s when they saw her on “Playboy After Dark†or the Smothers Brothers or Mike Douglas. There are recordings, but there’s no footage of her performing except for two movies she’s in.
So you end up using animation segments that you pair with her recordings. How did you come to that decision?
Everything for me is visual. That’s just how my head works. I knew there was not a lot to work with and that we were going to have to make it fun. I love animation, so I said, we’re going to make a cartoon! But others questioned it. People gave me the stink eye for animation. But it was the only thing we could do. Otherwise, you’re looking at a blank screen.
You used Kickstarter to fund some of your documentary. As a celebrity, why did you go that route?
I think you mean to be saying, “You seem to have enough money to do this. Why are you asking for help?†Because I needed it. I didn’t have enough money to do it and run our company and take care of all the other things. I’m the only one working. [Whispers] And I’m not Oprah. So I went to Kickstarter.
Were there many new discoveries about Moms Mabley you made in the process?
I didn’t know all the things I discovered while making the documentary. I didn’t know any of it. We discovered she was the first female standup, because, in trying to find comparable, there was no one for 40 years. And when she was performing at the Apollo, she was the highest paid entertainer. She made crazy money for the time.
What was your research process like?
I knew where all the albums were. And I knew what material I wanted to use from them. We figured the Apollo would have some things and the Schomburg Center would have something. And we collected from everywhere. We had several researchers who worked with us, because it was a lot. When you don’t have the stuff that is normally accessible, you gotta really go looking, under rocks, in corners.
How did you amass the number of interview subjects you had in the film?
I simply asked people, do you remember? And I had friends asking, just to find out who had any connection. And when it shook down, it was quite a wonderfully eclectic mix of people.
What was the element of Moms Mabley’s work that was most influential to you and the comedian you became?
The storytelling. It’s the same thing with Richard Pryor. It’s the stories. I don’t have to be bam, bam, bam, funny when I’m working. I can tell stories and there’s some funny IN them. But they move around. But the two of them in particular gave me that freedom.
How do you think she managed to hone her craft?
All those years on the chitlin’ circuit gave her the art of the story. So as she went through life and saw how things were evolving, I think she began to talk about them as they related to her. When she did that and made herself the butt of the joke, it made people more able to listen because she wasn’t laughing at them, she was laughing at herself. And it enabled people to laugh at her as well.
