Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

I'm not generally a fan of concert films, and "Summer of Soul" did go on a bit longer than I had patience for, but of films like it it's a great example of the genre.

The film makes a point of comparing the Harlem music festival to Woodstock, which took place in the same year. We remember Woodstock well -- it was even the subject of a documentary that won the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award in 1970 -- but who's ever heard of this black music festival? And it's even more jaw dropping because of the talent on the stage: Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Fifth Dimension, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone. The difference is that Woodstock was a celebration of music while this festival turned into a cry of rage, hope, anger, and action within the black community. It's like the people singing at this festival were literally singing for their lives and for the lives of all black people.

The galvanized energy that people in the crowd were feeling at the time and that they talk about all these years later comes through in the rescued footage. You can feel the electricity and chemistry between the performers and the crowd. A highlight of the film is the performance of Nina Simone, who is absolutely captivating. A person who was there says that watching her come onstage was like watching an African princess, and you can see what she's talking about.

Grade: A.

I hope this movie inspires someone to put out a DVD set (or streaming) of performances from this festival. The performance clips we get are generally fantastic (do wonder if that was the only BB King tape surviving because his clip is a bit of a mess). Overall I think the interviews and historical context descriptions give great insight into the period and circumstances of the festival which deepen the film.

I haven't been so moved by a film in a long time.

Beautifully restored lost footage of one of the coolest music festivals ever, which serendipitously took place in 1969, a pivotal year in American history. Questlove brings his music mastery (particularly in his DJ-ing and drumming) to the documentary editing table. It's an impressive amount of cinematic style for a man who's admittedly a novice. Simone's performance of Young, Gifted, and Black perfectly captures the power and pureness of this social musical.

1968 was a tough year for New York City, what with the garbage strike and the Harlem Riots (which killed more people than the riot about whether it was acceptable to wear a straw boater after September 15, and almost as many as the one about who was the best Shakespearean actor in town). In 1969, New York's best looking (and possibly worst performing, unless you count the one who went around in his wife's clothes) mayor agreed that a music festival in Harlem was preferable, so the City (and Maxwell House) bankrolled a series of four weekend concerts in Harlem. They even filmed it.

Never heard of it? Neither had I. Woodstock sucked all the air out of such goings on that summer. People know about Woodstock, Monterrey, and Altamont because of the sex and successful movies being made of them. The film for this one sat in a vault for fifty years because no one wanted to edit and release it. Were the rights secured? I don't know. How would you market it, with Nina Simone reading poetry about destroying the White Man's property? So it sat unedited and unreleased, while the people who had been there as adults died, and those who had been there as children grew uncertain about whether it had ever happened.

Except that now it has been edited and released, and it is an amazing collection of music, Black history, Black Pride, B. B. King telling us why he sang the blues, Mahalia Jackso singing.... well, who cares what she's singing? Plus Sly and the Family Stone, The Fifth Dimension (I didn't even know they were Black), Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight..... well the list goes on and on.

It goes on a little too long to be absolutely cinematic. It starts off with some amazing energy, and the first hour or so keeps it up in a whirlwind of editing by Joshua Pearson. Then.... well, there follows eight or ten segments that look like The Final Act, to be followed by a coda of commentary, only to be followed by another final act..... which dissipates the energy. Every act is great, and I don't know what I would cut. However, but the end I was exhausted.

Still. Great music. Great commentary. And if they want to televise it, they need to cut out Miss Simone's poetry slam.

I did not think time travel was possible, but then I walked into Summer of Soul. I could not have picked a better first post-pandemic theater experience, and I knew it the moment people started applauding at Mavis Staples' appearance. I visited 1969, I visited Harlem, and I had my very own Summer of Soul. Don't miss this one.