On Sunday, April 25th, during the 93rd Academy Awards, the teaser for the documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” aired. Questlove makes his directorial debut on the documentary, which looks at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The film will be released in theaters and on Hulu on July 2nd.
The Harlem Cultural Festival took place in Mount Morris Park in New York, during the same year, and just 100 miles south of Woodstock. Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Sly & the Family Stone, and many more performed at the festival in 1969. Footage from the festival is seen for the first time in “Summer of Soul,” which also features interviews from many individuals, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Chris Rock. The music documentary “shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present.”
Watch the teaser trailer for “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” here.
Questlove talked with Variety about the documentary and why he decided to make it, saying “Woodstock happens in two weeks after this and it defines a lifestyle, it defines a generation. Woodstock, the city name alone, just defines a whole movement. And I kept wondering what would have went down if this were allowed to happen for [Black people]. If this were allowed to unfurl and spread across the world as Woodstock did, how much of a difference could that have made in my life as a music lover and as a music collector? So, then I just felt this the sense of purpose that I have to tell the story.”
| Hip Hop | Pop | R&B | Latin | Dance | Country | Rock | Afrobeats |