Summer of Soul

Probably already nailed on as the music documentary of 2021, though Todd Haynes' Velvet Underground film should also be worth seeing. But The Velvet Underground have already been recognised for how revolutionary and historically significant they were, whereas Summer of Soul documents a moment in time and history that almost seems to have been buried, the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, held in Mount Morris Park,over a series of dates between June and August, attended by roughly 300,000 people and featuring one of the greatest festival line-ups of all, including Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, B.B.King, The Staples Singers, Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson,The 5th Dimension, Gladys Knight & the Pips and many many more.

Directed by Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson, with absolutely fabulous footage and interviews from the original event, which have been largely unseen since the event itself,  it tells a story about America that needs to be told and told again. How an event, equal in significance to the Woodstock Festival of the same year could be relegated to footnote status for so many decades. The film underlines the reason for this with calm assurance. Because it was a Black music festival. 

The performances are enough to make this a must see for anyone with the most basic interest in music but there's much more to Summer of Soul than that. It's the way the artists onstage interact with the audience, the interviews with attendees about how the event transformed their lives. During the festival Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked upon the moon and the reaction of Afro Americans interviewed about it all says it all about the divided experience of American existence.

I'm pleased to have subscribed to Disney Channel a few months back which means I can watch this wonderful film whenever I want. The most purely moving and celebratory music documentary I've seen since Amazing Grace. It foregrounds once more, if this really needs to be foregrounded, that there are a lot more questions that still need to be answered.