Summer of Soul

Starring: Al Sharpton, Alan Leeds, Jesse Jackson, Gladys Knight, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stevie Wonder, Chris Rock, Musa Jackson
Directed by: Questlove
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Documentary, Music
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Follows the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, a celebration of black culture, that larger white society virtually ignored.

Review:

Tim: I enjoyed Questlove's award-winning documentary, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Probably like a majority of white America today, I'd never heard of the Harlem Cultural Festival. It was stunning to hear it took place at the same time as Woodstock, a music festival I'm obviously familiar with. It was yet another reminder of how race is portrayed in our histories. At one point in this documentary, they talk about how black history is often erased from society's consciousness. I agree with that point, and it paints this documentary in an even more important light. Questlove is recapturing some of African-American history and preserving it for future generations. He also informed me (and hopefully, many other viewers) of an important event that "history" has mostly forgotten.

As far as the movie itself, I enjoyed it and consider it a good movie. This is Questlove's first feature and while an impressive debut, I don't think it's quite a great film. It's far more of an "important" movie than a great one. I don't mean to be pandering here, I'm glad the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature- it's important for our society that Hollywood recognizes important movies like this. As far as a film, though, I think it has more than a few flaws. These are never enough to sink the movie- it's well made, entertaining, at times revelatory. It's a movie I'm glad I watched and mostly liked.

The movie really tries to do two different things, which are sometimes complimentary and sometimes at odds. First, the movie is meant to inform audiences about the Harlem Cultural Festival and its importance to the Harlem community, highlighting the exceptional black performers who changed all of American culture through their talent and vision. To do this, the film interviews many festival attendees, who talk about their experiences and what it meant to them. This is incredibly powerful, as we hear from "regular" people, who talk about this cultural festival which such passion- and it happened over 50 years ago. Musa Jackson stands out as especially poignant, as he gives a heartfelt, powerful interview about his experience at the concert. We also hear from religious and cultural leaders who were there or impacted by it, like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. The film does a good job of informing the audience.

The other aspect of the film is preserving the cultural footage of the concert, and we get long stretches of watches the different performers sing for the audience. This is equally as important, because the whole point of the documentary is to preserve this event for future generations. These scenes are more uneven. Now, I should admit that I'm not a fan of concert documentaries. I love going to concerts- the experience, the emotions, the camaraderie of being in one place with hundreds or thousands of people, all sharing a moment. I've never found filmed concerts to be that powerful. You hear the music, you see the entertainers, and the audience, but it's a hollow experience compared to being there. I felt a little of that here. Now, yes, I did marvel at being able to watch some of these performers. It's amazing to me that the footage sat in a basement for decades and could easily have been lost forever. So, there are moments where I watched, transfixed by the footage. Other songs feel like they go on too long. I know this was an important part of the film, but the music numbers felt like they often dragged on too long and weren't as compelling as the interviews.

That being said, there's still amazing footage here. I was probably most impressed by Sly and the Family Stone. I knew many of their songs and I'd heard the name, but I never really understood them. I learned a great deal about them and their cultural influence and importance here. I don't think I've ever seen Nina Simone perform, so I learned a lot more about her (Before this film, I knew her name, and she was important, that's about it). Stevie Wonder performing, incredible. However, there were a series of other performers featured which felt like they didn't quite reach this same level. The movie does a good job of showcasing different performers, but not all them felt as relevant as others. This contributes to the feeling that the movie is too long. I know it's just under 2 hours, but I started to feel weary before the end of it. I get that Questlove and everyone involved wanted to preserve as much footage as possible, but I think the movie would have been better had 15-18 minutes been cut.

I get that I'm not the intended audience here and I recognize that I won't feel the same connection to heritage and culture that other viewers might experience. I really did enjoy Summer of Soul and it was incredible to see how Questlove crafted an entertaining film that felt important to audiences today and into the future. I loved the idea of the movie and I liked the movie itself. Those things can both be true. I'm glad the film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, even though I wouldn't include this in the top tier of documentaries I've seen.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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