Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
You may have heard the hype around Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), and the hype is real: this is a music documentary for the ages. Directed by The Roots’ drummer Questlove (who is also known for so many other accolades, two of which I will get into shortly), Summer of Soul is a capturing of a lost moment in time: the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969. This free event took place over six weeks and celebrated the progressions of black people both musically and in America (musical connections with Africa are made as well in the documentary). The event was hosted in Harlem by organizer Tony Lawrence, whose presence is felt and witnessed throughout the documentary; Questlove allows Lawrence to shine as the main mind behind this documentary, as Questlove steps back as an appreciator and curator more than the designer here. It’s the kind of prioritization that allows Summer of Soul to really resonate: Questlove didn’t make this to drive home his own point or to push his own agenda, but to share what needs to be shared with the world.
Oftentimes, music documentaries either focus on being an experience or a commentary; it’s quite difficult to pull off both. The Harlem Cultural Festival was called the black Woodstock as a means of promotion post-festival, but I’ll make another connection here. The Woodstock film — which was allowed to be shared with the world back in 1970 — was one of the rare films to transport you to the event and show everything that it represented with extra coverage; in order to pull this off, Woodstock utilizes many different pieces of footage at once and is close to four hours. It is one of the greatest documentaries of all time. Well, I can safely say that Summer of Soul accomplishes the same experience in half the length and in a very different way: through Questlove’s experiences as a producer and a DJ. Spoken interviews are placed on top of concert footage with the perfect sound blending. Furthermore, which footage is placed in is entirely dependent on the flow that Questlove is able to conjure up. Summer of Soul is a fluid experience, with sounds and images flowing amongst one another, and it is a ride you don’t want to stop. Sure, Woodstock is considered one of the greatest documentaries of all time (I feel the same way), but I really don’t think it’s too early to say that Summer of Soul will follow a similar trajectory. Give it time. It’s got everything a perfect documentary requires, especially when it comes to the music film genre. There really aren’t many music documentaries that are better than Summer of Soul. You’ll be hearing about this film for a while.
Summer of Soul feels timeless already.
This is crucial because Summer of Soul helps shed light on an event that was scrubbed out of history. Yes, the Harlem Cultural Festival and Woodstock go hand-in-hand, because the latter was used as an excuse to hide the fact that the former even existed. No major form of media wanted to cover the Harlem Cultural Festival, and just like that, a major moment in black pop culture was all but a memory; some of the attendees actually detail that they feel like they could only remember the event, and there was no way to revisit this monumental time. Well, now there is. With the painstaking piecing-together of this recovered footage (which was stuffed in a basement for fifty years, only to see the light of day now) and the incredible digitization work, we can be as close to this nearly-erased event as ever before. With the love, the testimonies, and the technical expertise here, this festival will never disappear. When this film goes down as a staple of its genre, the Harlem Cultural Festival will only grow and grow in legacy.
The festival is important, but it also has some damn great music. Here’s a film with live, never-before-seen footage of performances by Nina Simone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, The 5th Dimension, David Ruffin of The Temptations, Mavis Staples, and so much more. Everyone is at the top of their game, with the spirit of the festival elevating every musician to the best of their abilities. Not a single dud or false note is here. Of course, Questlove kicks the thing off with a Stevie Wonder drum solo (which only makes sense, given Questlove’s main instrument of choice), and we are off to an electrifying start. Again, Questlove has a clever way of deciding which song and performer go where. Sly and the Family Stone aren’t left for the end, but a song of theirs is saved as the final one: “Higher”, which feels so appropriate. Throughout the film, the politics of the time are also brought up: assassinations, police brutality, the lack of helping impoverished minority communities during the moon landing, and so much more. Summer of Soul is optimistic, however, and resolving on such an ironically spiritual anthem just feels so right.
A performance of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Higher” is used to close off a dynamic documentary full of purpose and love.
Summer of Soul is good. Bloody good. It is fun but purposeful; layered but easy to digest; specific in context but for all to see. It is a celebration of great music, but also insight into important history. It just feels so perfectly assembled as a film, as a visual essay, as a collection of interviews and rediscovered concert footage, and so much more. The personal connections humanize this treasure trove of film. The extra found footage flourishes add depth to the timeline in which Summer of Soul takes place. This is a well-designed documentary in virtually every way: it is effortless to watch despite how riveting it is, it gets its point across and then some, and you feel transported back to 1969 whilst feeling the event’s impact today (whilst acknowledging what work is left to do). This film must win Best Documentary Feature Film at the Academy Awards this year. It must. I implore the Oscars to also consider this film for its editing. It’s too late to include it in the sound category, but it should have been there. This is a marvel of a film through and through, and unquestionably a highlight of 2021 (had I caught this film last year as I should have, it absolutely would have made my top films of the year). I can’t stress this enough: Summer of Soul is brilliant.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.