OSCARS 2021: Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Documentaries remain a fairly niche genre. The days when the blockbuster success of “Fahrenheit 9/11” seemed to break the genre out of the art house and into the multiplexes is long gone. Streaming services are now where docs have the best shot of breaking out. Even then, it only seems one or two truly catch the wider public’s attention a year. One of the candidates for 2021’s breakout documentary is “Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised.)” It helps that the film’s topic, of music, helped draw in an audience that maybe don’t watch many docs. Either way, musician Questlove’s debut feature film is among 2021's most critically acclaimed works. This made it the most easily guessed nominee in the Best Documentary Features category this year. 

The film concerns the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. That was a free series of concerts and performances held over six weeks in Mount Morris Park in Harlem, during the blistering hot summer of 1969. Some of the most important and groundbreaking black musicians and artists of the day performed for a packed crowd of enthusiastic concert-goers. The festival was filmed but, due to lack of interest from any broadcasters, the footage has never been seen... Before now. Questlove's film chronicles the concerts and the historical events that occurred around them, alongside interviews with the people who were there. 

1969 was a pivotal time for America. What truly separates "Summer of Soul" from a mere concert film is the effort it takes to establish this complicated year. The deaths of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Kennedys were all fresh in people's memories. The Vietnam War was ongoing. Nixon was in office. Drugs, riots, and racial persecution from the police had raged through Harlem. Man landed on the moon during the festival but that seemed like a ludicrous waste of money and effort for the poor communities of  Harlem. Empowerment and revolution was the environment that gave birth to this series of performances. It's unsurprising to see figures like Jesse Jackson and Nina Simone speaking to these trying times and encouraging the audiences to be loud and proud of their blackness. 

Clearly, the Festival took place during a time of upheaval and change in America. Yet "Summer of Soul" also shows 1969 as a period of innovation and genre-blending for black popular culture too. A diverse group of genres were represented in Harlem that summer. Motown soul and R&B, gospel, jazz, blues, and folk artists performed one after the other. Established pop-soul acts like The 5th Dimension and David Ruffin from The Temptations sang alongside rising stars like Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. Artists from South Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean performed, showing the rising importance of afrocentrism and Afro-Latin culture. Sly Stone was there, showcasing the still evolving funk genre. Experimental jazz artists, like Sonny Sharrock, were there. There was even stand-up comedy and ventriloquism. It was a truly eclectic gathering of the arts.

The film centers the importance of music to the culture of the time. The concert footage is often electrifying. It's a treat seeing the likes of B.B. King and Mongo Santamaria in their prime. The cathartic effect of wailing, shredding, and dancing is repeatedly emphasized as an expression of the suppressed trauma of being black in America. Questlove smartly gathered many of the surviving performers and audience members, discussing their memories. Hearing icons like Mavis Staple, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder reflect on performing with their idols, or reflecting on the time period, is truly rewarding. "Summer of Soul" both puts us there and has us look back on that summer.

Despite running just under two hours, "Summer of Soul" manages to touch on so many topics through the lens of this music festival. Both the Black Panthers and the cops had a presence at the concert. The importance of the Afro hairstyle and the reclaiming of the word "black" are discussed. Something that struck me about the film is that these concerts happened the same summer as Woodstock. That hallmark of boomer nostalgia and white culture has been discussed ad nauseam. Meanwhile, a festival of equal importance to black culture that happened the same year was forgotten for decades. I guess that's all too typical. Hopefully, "Summer of Soul," a highly entertaining and often electrifying film, will change all that. [8/10]