Festival

I had never seen this til I got a hold of this copy and love it... There are so many good artists here, who knew? The interviews are often hilarious and a few are pretty interesting. The bit with Joan Baez signing autographs and talking in a car shows that she was more than just another folk star, talking about "alternative" music and culture back in... 1964? The Odetta clip makes me want to dig up her records, the music is so compelling. Even Peter/Paul/Mary sound pretty damn good. I originally tracked this down just to see Dylan's electric performance, which turned out to be more electric than I expected - the guitarist churns out some pretty bitchen' licks - for 1965 this was hardcore! If you liked "Don't Look Back" you'd probably enjoy this. I hope this comes out on DVD with tons of extra footage sometime soon while I'm still alive! apple-o

Festival is sadly among the missing documents of an era in popular music that continues to fascinate. After a brief theatrical run in 1967, the film continued to show up at repertory theaters through the next decade. But with the advent of home video, problems with wider distribution arose, due to clearing music performance rights. Thus, any opportunity to see this film should be taken. Director Murray Lerner hung out at four Newport Folk Festivals (1963-1966), recording performances, interviews, and crowd shots. Editing all of this footage into less than 100 minutes of film inevitably meant compromises; there are no complete performances, the interviews are brief. But the feeling for an era remains, and the most electric moment (literally) involves that famous (or infamous) 1965 performance by Bob Dylan, when he plugged in his guitar and played with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Among the highlights are several involving veteran bluesmen like Son House breaking through to a mostly white, college-age crowd.

Filmmaker Murray Lerner documents the Newport Folk Festival from 1963 to 1966. It's in black and white. In addition to the performers, he interviews some of the audiences. The performers include Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan. Joan Baez has a good size section which includes her interacting with fans. The most interesting is a small scene with Dylan performing with an electric guitar. There is cheering after his set. I'm not sure if that's the 1965 festival when he first returned to electric. All in all, it's a great time capsule of old performances and artists long gone. It is music history.

If you're a rabid fan of early to mid 1960's Folk Music, this is the documentary you have been waiting to see. Director Murry Lerner (who also directed an inspired documentary about the Isle Of Wight Festival of 1970) has crafted a well filmed document of four years of the Newport Folk Festival, between 1963 to 1966,including footage of Bob Dylan the first time he plugged in his brand new Stratocaster and played Maggie's Farm for an unsuspecting (and disturbed)audience. The film also makes good use of other Folk icons of the era (Joan Baez,Paul Butterfield,Son House,etc.). This black & white documentary was screened as an "art film", back in the day, and pretty much was forgotten by the end of the 60's, due to the popularity of psychedelic rock (which itself lead to progressive rock,etc.). Worth a watch if you're a fan of Dylan & the rest of the folk scene.

The strength of this documentary is in its intimacy. We get really up close & personal with the musicians as well as the audience. The Newport Folk Festival was huge, as conveyed in the opening credit scene with a seemingly endless river of people flowing onto the grounds, but for the most part the camera stays tight with the subjects, whether it's Joan Baez signing autographs (and later hi-fiving fans through the window of her car as we ride in the back seat), or eavesdropping on fans camped out, or even on stage during performances where the camera seemed to be within a few feet. Rarely have I seen this approach to filming an event of this magnitude. That's the good.

The bad, or at least the frustrating part, is as I mentioned in my title. While the initial performance (Peter, Paul & Mary) gives us a full song uninterrupted, thus whetting our whistle for more like that, the other acts are cut short. With other big stars like Donovan and Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, we sometimes get only 1 verse and the ending of a song. Then we cut back to another performance by Peter, Paul & Mary. I can only guess that there simply wasn't enough footage taken of the other acts. But it's a noticeable flaw in this otherwise all-encompassing taste of what the Festival was like. So if you came here for the music, I'm afraid you won't get your fill. But if you approach it as a talky type documentary with a few clips of performances interspersed, that's what you'll get.