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Don't miss Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson Summer of Soul documentary, it's fantastic!
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is a 2021 American documentary film about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival , directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in his directorial debut.It had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2021, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the documentary categories.
The film examines the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which took place on six Sundays between June 29 and August 24 at Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem ( same year as woodstock), using professional footage of the festival that was filmed as it happened, stock news footage, and modern-day interviews with attendees, musicians, and other commentators to help provide historical background and social context. Despite having a large attendance and performers such as Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, The 5th Dimension, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mavis Staples, Blinky Williams, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Chambers Brothers, the festival is much less well-known in the 21st-century than is Woodstock (which took place on the same weekend as one of the days of the Harlem Cultural Festival), and the filmmakers investigate this, among other topics.
At the request of festival organizer and host Tony Lawrence, television producer Hal Tulchin recorded about forty hours of footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival on videotape, excerpts from which were packaged as two one-hour TV-specials that were broadcast in 1969, one on CBS in July, and one on ABC in September. The tapes were then placed in a basement, where they sat for the next 50 years. Tulchin attempted to interest broadcasters in the recordings for several years, but he had little success, though some of the footage of Nina Simone was eventually used in documentaries about the singer.
Director Ahmir Thompson has expressed surprise that the footage sat for so long, and that he had never heard of the festival before the producers approached him about making the film.[15] Discussing its obscurity, he stated: "What would have happened if this was allowed a seat at the table? How much of a difference would that have made in my life? That was the moment that extinguished any doubt I had that I could do this."
The movie can be watched on apple tv.
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