KYMM'S 365 DAY MOVIE CHALLENGE #21: SUMMER OF SOUL (2021, dir by Questlove, USA)

1969 was the end of a tumultuous decade, the likes of which had not been seen before. So much happened in those 10 years: assassinations, war, the rise of youth culture, Black power, gay pride, the women’s movement. Many marginalized groups rose up to assert their dignity. And the capper of the decade was Woodstock, three days of peace and music on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, NY. Woodstock grew to embody not only 1969, but the 1960s entire. There was nothing else but Woodstock, which was recorded and filmed, so it was and will be remembered. However, there was just a little bit more music that summer, besides Woodstock. There was also the Harlem Cultural Festival in Mount Morris Park over six Sundays, June 29-August 4. It was free, it was attended by hundreds of thousands of people, the performers were some of the greatest musical stars of the era, some at the peak of their careers, some just cresting into greatness, and it too, was filmed.

But nobody wanted to make a movie out of it, so the footage was stored in a basement for fifty years and the concerts were completely forgotten by history. Until now.

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is the music documentary that was finally made out of this footage, by the musician and bandleader Questlove, making his directorial debut.The film is a different film than would have been made in 1969, as it is more than just the footage of the festival, which is what it would have been at the time, and I think it is a much more complete and important film than it would have been without the perspective of fifty years.

There are three things that make up Summer of Soul. Firstly the original footage, of course, then the addition of contemporary interviews with not only performers, but attendees talking about the experience, and, most important of all, context. Everything is put into the context of being in the last year of the 1960s. The assassinations of John Kennedy in ‘63, Malcolm X in ‘65, Martin Luther King and then Bobby Kennedy in ‘68, everything just piling up like it was never going to stop. Questlove weaves the music in and out of stories about what was going on in the country contemporaneously with the concert, what had come before, and what was coming after.

It was a time of incredible change for America and the world, but there was also music and joy, and high school kids telling their mothers that they were going shopping, and sneaking off to the park to see this incredible music.The footage captured is amazing, and I don’t know how they restored it after being in a basement for 50 years, but it looks as though it was all captured yesterday. It was all shot by natural light, as they had no money for the filming. The stage, when built, had to face west so that the sun wouldn’t disappear behind the stage as it started to set, leaving everyone backlit and in darkness.

This many paragraphs and I have yet to mention the performers? Well, there was Sly and the Family Stone, The Staples Singers, a 19 year old Stevie Wonder, The Fifth Dimension, Mahalia Jackson, a terrible young Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, BB King, Hugh Masekela, but also Moms Mabley and Willie Tyler and Lester, not to mention the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who literally stood there on that stage and told the story of the last moments of Martin Luther King’s life only one year after it happened. Jackson says the King’s last words were about wanting to hear his favourite hymn, Take My Hand, Precious Lord, and then Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson get up and perform it. Mahalia Jackson was going to do it herself, but she asked Mavis Staples to join her because she wasn’t feeling well, not that you could tell, when she tore the metaphorical roof off the joint. Mavis Staples, in her current interview, says that when they were passing the mic back and forth, and then they shared the mic and sang together into it, that that was one of the greatest moments of her life. And you can see that great moment, a literal passing of the torch from one generation of gospel queen to the next.

The best part is seeing people see the footage for the first time. Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., from the Fifth Dimension, seeing that amazing moment in their lives for the first time, and being so moved, it’s a beautiful sight.The other best part is seeing the crowd footage. All those thousands and thousands of people sharing this incredible experience. And we get to be with them, for a couple of hours. As much as any movie I have ever seen, it takes away the remove of time and distance, and brings you as close as possible to being in this crowd, surround by these beautiful people, listening to this beautiful music, on a hot summer Sunday in 1969.

Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog