"Rejoice and Shout" is Magnolia Pictures' intensely researched, incredibly thorough history of gospel music in America. It follows the music from its humble plantation roots into churches and mainstream culture through interviews with musicians and historians, live concert footage and early recordings. The film's strength is in its completeness. Early four-part harmony groups get as much coverage as legends like Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples. There's a whole section on one of my favorites, the guitar-slinging Sister Rosetta Tharpe. The film also spends time on current acts like Darrel Petties and the Selvey Family (the film opens with one of the youngest Selveys singing a version of Amazing Grace so beautiful and robust that's its hard to believe that a sound that big is coming from a pre-teen girl). While the film follows a basic chronological order, it is at times rambling and slightly disorganized. Smokey Robinson is credited as a narrator, but his narration is limited to talking-head style interviews. "Rejoice and Shout" has a lot of ground to cover, and it could have benefited from a little bit of voice-over narration to give the viewer some directional markers. That said, the film more than adequately captures the joy in gospel music. When I saw it at an advanced screening last week, the audience was moved to clapping and singing along more than once. "Rejoice and Shout" isn't exactly a Memphis movie, but the city figures prominently in sections about Southern gospel, and Memphis artists (and the Church of God in Christ) are heavily represented. This film gives an origin point for the born-in-Memphis musical forms (blues, rock'n'roll, soul) that followed. Currently, "Rejoice and Shout" is playing a limited run of theaters across the country. You can see it in Memphis on Friday, June 10th at the Ridgeway 4 and the Majestic 20.