Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021)

A spectacular music documentary, this is about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, held 100 miles south of Woodstock the same summer. Musician Questlove, AKA Ahmir-Khalib Thompson (born in 1971), was chosen to direct after some of the producers unearthed 45 hours of footage from the basement of Hal Tulchin (1926-2017), the filmmaker who shot the original event. 

You will see historical footage interspersed with the performances (listed below) and the subtitle is derived from the seminal 1970 Gil-Scott Heron poem and song (listen here) The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The festival's location was, at the time, called Mount Morris Park and is now Marcus Garvey Park, in memory of the Jamaican political activist.

Executive producers Jon Kamen and Dave Sirulnick first became aware of the festival when making What Happened, Miss Simone? Both documentaries opened the Sundance Film Festival. Further reading (Variety article and New York Times article) and listening (NPR story) are available.

Jack and I were coming of age in 1969 and the music is very special to us both. I'm sure not all of Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are as old as we are, but they share our sunny outlook, averaging 99 and 98%, respectively.

Made for Hulu, this is playing in a few live movie theatres at the moment, as well. We're not quite ready to go back to live mingling, so we sent a small donation to our favorite art house in lieu of tickets after we watched it July 10.

There's a bonus at the end of the credits, so don't leave your seat before you see it.

The festival took place on six Sundays from June 29-August 24, 1969 (Woodstock was August 15-18) with performers including:

The 5th Dimension

Ray Barretto

The Chambers Brothers

The Edwin Hawkins Singers

Mahalia Jackson

B.B. King

Gladys Knight & the Pips

Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach

Moms Mabley

Herbie Mann

Hugh Masakela

Babatunde Olatunji

David Ruffin

Mongo Santamaria

Nina Simone

Sly and the Family Stone

The Staple Singers

Cal Tjader

Stevie Wonder.

The movie includes archival and/or current appearances by 

Redd Foxx

Charlayne Hunter-Gault

Jesse Jackson

Mayor John Lindsay

Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father Luis

Chris Rock

and more.