Summer of Soul – Movie Review

You’ve no doubt heard a ton of praise for the new doc Summer of Soul so let me cut to the chase and add my voice to the chorus: Summer of Soul is the must-see music doc of the summer.

But the film is much more than a summer/music doc, it’s an exploration of race, civil rights and presents Harlem as a cultural Mecca for African-Americans of the late 60’s. The film is crafted from footage recorded during the summer of 1969 at several concerts that comprised the Harlem Cultural Festival. Over the summer some 300,000 people came to Marcus Garvey Park to what would be dubbed “Black Woodstock”. Let’s go down the roster: Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight, BB King, Sly and the family Stone, the 5^th Dimension and many, many more. These concerts we’re recorded in the hopes that it would be broadcast on TV or turned into a film, but these plans never materialized… until now.

Questlove aka Ahmir Thompson best known as the drummer, DJ, producer and bandleader of The Roots puts his remixing skills at work in this, his directorial debut. Along with the archival footage we get contemporary interviews from the likes of Chris Rock and Lin-Manuel Miranda to help put the footage in context and explain how at this pivotal moment in history the concert represented a shift in African-American culture and art.

If the film has any faults its that I wanted more of the backstory of the festival. How exactly did it come to be and more importantly why did it go unnoticed and forgotten for decades? True, some of this is covered in the film but one gets a sense that there may be more to the story. Also how did Questlove first hear about the festival? Where had the footage been? What condition were the tapes in? What was the process to restore this footage? All of this could be another documentary itself and back in the days of DVD’s and special features would’ve made for a great “behind-the-scenes” featurette. And I get it that this may not have been the purpose of this documentary but the cinephile in me wants the story behind the story.

Although Summer of Soul will be available to stream it easily falls into the category of films best seen on the big screen. This is the kind of film you want to hear and hear LOUD! It’s the kind of film that is not just a movie but an experience, an immersive ride of sight and sound that transports you back to that summer of love, the summer of ’69 when the “Revolution Could Not Be Televised”.

Summer if Soul (… or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised) is being released by Searchlight Pictures, Hulu and Onyx Collective.