Movie Review: Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

4 stars out of 5

Well, it turns out a lot more people watch a documentary if it’s also airing on Hulu. But I love movie theaters and a trip to one can seem like a mini summer vacation (in this case, also time travel). So I went to see Questlove’s Summer of Soul on the big screen.

For music lovers, it’s a must-see. Summer in the city, 1969, at the Harlem Cultural Festival. Stevie Wonder rocking it on the drums. B.B. King’s blistering blues. Sly and the Family Stone taking us higher. Old Mahalia Jackson and young Mavis Staples taking us even higher still. Outstanding! Nearly every genre represented: soul, funk, gospel, rock, pop, jazz, psychedelia, Latino.

About 300,000 total people in attendance over successive weeks, and yet, basically forgotten. No movie, no soundtrack. So Questlove has done us all a great service by revisiting this splendid event. And that he’s presented it in such a compelling manner deserves high praise.

The festival is placed in historical context. It’s a year after the 1968 riots and Harlem needs healing. It’s the summer of the moon landing and a common and very reasonable reaction of the black community — why waste money on space travel when there are hungry people at home? — definitely wasn’t taught in my textbooks. And the more things change, the more they don’t. They didn’t have the term Black Lives Matter yet but the inequality and the outrage were certainly there. Nina Simone’s stellar performance of “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black” should’ve been played in every school, every day for the past 52 years, and the next 52 years too.

Current interviews, including attendees, provide further context. Particularly affecting for me were Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis of the Fifth Dimension (who perform the written-in-Hoboken “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” at the festival). It’s interesting and sad that the group’s top-40-friendly sounds were considered “not black enough.” As the movie clearly shows, music is a big, big tent.

Chris Rock and Lin-Manuel Miranda seem tacked on for name value more than anything. Other minor gripes: It’s mentioned, though glossed over — especially in the publicity — that 1969 was the third year of the festival. Wouldn’t have minded a little more info on those first two years. Wikipedia tells me that festival footage was aired on Channel 5 New York that summer; if that’s true it deserved a mention. And personally, I would’ve liked a comparison with the Los Angeles Wattstax concert just three years later (that also included the Staple Singers and Jesse Jackson) which did get the feature film and soundtrack treatment.

Overall though, a tremendous effort, and tremendously entertaining. For a regular showgoer like myself, it was great to see the (frequently mentioned) “sea of black faces” in the crowd, with some “token” white kids, a total reverse of so many current rock shows. The organizers, including producer/emcee Tony Lawrence, did a fabulous job running a smooth festival, and Questlove has done an equally great job preserving it.