Courtesy Search Light Pictures
Movies
In 1969, with the country’s eyes on Woodstock and the moon landing, the Harlem Cultural Festival took over Mount Morris Park (today Marcus Garvey Park) in New York City for six consecutive weekends of shows—every last one of them something incredible. Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension, Nina Simone, BB King, Hugh Masekela, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Pops Staples and the Staples Singers, Mahalia Jackson and on and on and on and...
The series was promptly lost to history.
Oh, it was filmed professionally by a guy named Hal Tulchin (who died in 2017), but nobody wanted to buy the historic, brilliant, crystal-clear, world-changing footage. And so it sat in some basement for the last 50 years, until Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (of The Roots) caught wind of it, unearthed the tapes and put together his first documentary—Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a bit of an indie darling that wowed crowds at Sundance and now comes to theaters and streaming service Hulu.
First things first—it’s almost unbelievable such a feat took place. As we learn in the film, Black culture was phasing from stories of trauma and staid, “acceptable” forms of dress, culture and existence. It was ’69, the year the world first heard the phrase “Black is beautiful;” the year former New York Times journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault (who was at the fest and who appears in the movie) fought to replace the term “negro” with “Black” in the paper of record; the year Motown started feeling dated and Sly and the Family Stone radicalized a generation.
So why, when Woodstock amounted to little more than three days of miserable mud, near-deaths and some of the most notoriously terrible performances of all time, do so few people know about the Harlem Cultural Festival? As Tulchin tells Thompson in the film, he tried to sell it as “The Black Woodstock,” later lamenting how that didn’t help one bit.
But today, through interviews with performers, promoters and attendees, Thompson paints a picture of a world in flux both defined and spurred by the soundtrack of the festival, and it is glorious.
Unlike other music docs, Thompson highlights longer performance sections (Jackson, Simone, King and Stevie shine in particular), but whereas Summer of Soul could have been strictly about the music, we veer into the over-arching American culture and race politics of the day.
A response could go either way for viewers. On one hand, this is well-worn territory, particularly within the documentary milieu. Other films have dug deeper and been more effective in their storytelling, and Thompson’s glimpses can feel rushed before it’s back to footage of some other notable performance from the fest. On the other hand, how would one even begin to tell the story of the series’ impact without digging into the events that helped cause it? Thompson does well in tying performances to events, especially when someone like present-day Marilyn McCoo tearfully squeaks out that she was “so happy to be there,” or a civilian attendee points out how their entire worldview changed during the course of the festival.
Summer of Soul goes beyond mere journalism to highlight the Harlem Cultural Festival’s vast importance without finger-wagging. If we weren’t there, we likely wouldn’t have known. And while that’s certainly outrageous and another example of the white-washing of America’s cultural history, Thompson seemingly wants us to just be glad we know now. It’s not hard to do so—and you’re not likely to find another gathering of musicians that feels as joyous as this probably did in your lifetime. Even watching it in a theater feels celebratory. Shout that far and wide.
8
+Incredible footage; musically unstoppable; every last performer
-Shorter than it could have been; some history sections feel tacked on
Summer of Soul
Directed by Thompson
Violet Crown, Hulu, PG-13, 117 min.
