Directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson
**** (four stars)
RATED PG 13
I was born in 1969.
For reasons that still remain ever so mysterious to me, I have always held this deep, to practically primal, relationship with my fascination with the 1960's. How enraptured I have always been, especially as a child, with newsreel stories that illustrated that decade's midpoint to the dawn of the 1970's, as American society was facing its cultural sea change due to the turbulence of the generation gap, the counter culture, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam war and unquestionably the Civil Rights movement. The aesthetics of the period, from fashion to hairstyles and of course, the continuously revolutionary and psychedelicized music, only helped to serve and shape a world view, the core of which, an admittedly more utopian ideal, still resides inside of me.
I could see the chaos of the time only through snapshots of images and sounds, always wanting to gather a greater sense of what that time was really like. Yet, whenever I asked my parents to illuminate and flesh out my perceptions, the answers I was given were decidedly muted to completely unexciting, almost as if holes were being punctured into the balloon of illusion. While everything I had seen and read about contained truth, there was an even greater truth that my parents displayed to me: the sights I would see in archived news footage did not fully describe or represent what was happening or even not happening everywhere. I was repeatedly seeing one representation of a historical period, decidedly and truthfully, a representation delivered through the lens of Whiteness. And in doing so, how many other lenses, ones that would fully present the larger mosaic of society, were being unseen, therefore depleting a greater understanding of ourselves and the time period during which we co-existed?
Recently, I reviewed Director Sam Pollard's terrific documentary "Black Art: In The Absence Of Light," a work that lushly presented a largely unseen (or more truthfully, unacknowledged) collective of Black artists, historians, educators, curators, collectors, writers and journalists within the more European based canon of the art world. It is a film that beautifully exists to not only expand the nature of our perceptions of the medium of art, it more importantly and gorgeously extended itself to expand upon the Black consciousness of who we are and what we can be. For again, if we are not able to see ourselves, then we are denied the opportunities to be inspired by ourselves to become whatever we are able to ascend towards.
Ahmir Thompson, famously known as Questlove, drummer/songwriter/producer/bandleader of The Roots, as well as revered DJ, musicologist, author and Professor at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, has now expanded his copious gifts even further by becoming a film director and believe me, his debut is a grand slam!! "Summer Of Soul (or, When The Revolution Couldn't Be Televised)" is an electrifying, evocative and supremely emotional document of a cultural event that otherwise would have been lost to time.
Much like the late Sydney Pollack and Producer Alan Eliot's extraordinary retrieval and full restoration of "Amazing Grace" (2019), the document of the late Aretha Franklin's live performance recording of her iconic "Amazing Grace" double album (released June 1, 1972), material that was shelved and unseen for 47 years, what Questlove has achieved is akin to a movie miracle. In addition to rescuing a mass of unseen and superlative performance footage from some of the peak Black musical artists of soul, blues, pop and gospel of its day, the film, like the very best documentaries, transcends the immediate subject matter to unveil an impassioned statement of the evolution of Black consciousness 52 years ago and how it mirrors that continued evolution within the 21st century. And furthermore, the film serves as a dissertation about the nature of our perception of our collective history.
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's "Summer Of Soul" details the experience of the Harlem Cultural Festival, an event held over six weekends in Harlem's Mt. Morris Park at which over 300,000 people attended. And, stunningly...the event was FREE to the public!
The festival, as produced and directed by nightclub singer Tony Lawrence, with aid from the then Republican New York Mayor John Lindsey, was designed as a testament and tribute to Black pride and culture, and arrived as the Civil Rights movement, grim sequence of political assassinations of President John F. Kennedy (1963), Malcolm X (1965), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy (both 1968), the rise of President Nixon and the overall social/political/economic landscape of the nation, and Black America in particular, was reaching a combustible apex.
Despite attracting performers on the level of B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, Hugh Masakela, Sly and the Family Stone and so many more, plus attaining corporate sponsorship from Maxwell House and General Foods and even then, having the entirety of the event completely filmed, the contents of the festival have been unbelievably unseen ever since...until now.
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's "Summer Of Soul" is a stunning, sun soaked film of community and communion, firmly settling itself next to the likes of Mel Stuart's "Wattstax" (1973), Michel Gondry's "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" (2005) and the aforementioned "Amazing Grace." Featuring new interviews with some of the festival's performers as well as some of the patrons who attended the series when they were in their late teens, Questlove has delivered an unabashed labor of love, a fervent poem to the community of Harlem, a valentine to a specific time and place in Black culture and history, and an outstanding musical artifact of a time and period during which Black artists existed to enrich and enliven as well as entertain.
Leave it to a drummer on the level of Questlove to essentially open his film with a drum solo, one performed by none other than a then 19 year old Stevie Wonder no less!! Yet, instead of being anything approaching self indulgence, the sequence is a fireworks display of a performance, preparing us for the dynamic presentation to follow, while also brilliantly accenting the cultural undercurrent and purpose of the festival itself, in the past as well as the present.
From purely the standpoint of a music documentary, "Summer Of Soul" is first rate from end to end. From the stoned soul picnic vibes of The Chambers Brothers' "Uptown," David Ruffin's "My Girl," and Gladys Knight and the Pips' "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" to the soaring songs of Black togetherness as witnessed in The Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day," to the sweat and fire of B.B. King's "Why I Sing The Blues," every single musical sequence is a showstopper.
Instead of serving itself up simply as a parade of stars, which would have easily been more than good enough considering the high quality of the performances themselves, I deeply appreciated how Questlove and his interview subjects made great strides to provide a larger context to the music being seen and heard. Within this festival, and therefore this film, music is not a passive event. It is designed for you to engage with it, to attain a complete experience as the music is a form of communication, conversation and connective tissue from performer to audience, from one racial group to another, from us to ourselves and from ourselves to our ancestors and back again. To that end, we are then able to see the interconnectivity between the music styles and genres themselves, all of which are elements of the Black history which birthed all of them.
With the performances of Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, Herbie Mann, and Hugh Masakela, the film showcases the linkage between the music and communities of Black, Latino, African, Puerto Rican, and Afro-Cuban, all of whom resided within Harlem. We can hear the blues of Pops Staples' guitar in The Staple Singers' gospel, as well as influences of gospel in the righteous funk of Sly and the Family Stone's "Higher." And in one of the film's most musically explosive sequences, we bear witness to a sky scorching duet between the inimitable Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson (!), and really, what was more rock and roll than that?!
Beyond the actual music, the festival, and now the film, affords us the opportunity to bask in the presentation of ourselves in ways that challenge and expand our own horizons into what and how we, as Black people, are able to envision ourselves. As previously stated, 1969 was truly a psychedelicized time as a more conservative (i.e. White American) appearances and attire gave way to the cultural changes towards presenting ourselves through more African themed clothing as well as our unapologetically natural hairstyles.
The decidedly psychedelic outfits of The 5th Dimension, in addition to their hybrid sound of soul, pop and folk, was a quietly revolutionary act in and of itself when it came to the perceptions of what beautiful Black people could look and sound like. Sly and the Family Stone, in particular, was the most radical group in attendance in mere appearance alone, from the band's wardrobe to the sight of a mixed race/mixed gender band of musical equals (therefore pre-dating what we would see from Prince more than a decade later).
Yet, most of all, it was remarkable to see over and again throughout the film, from performers to audience members, the sense of awe felt when witnessing a veritable sea of Black people shoulder to shoulder in harmony and without incident, unveiling a deep celebration of self while also and in essence fully challenging the perceived inherent sense of wrongdoing and evil of Blackness.
How clever it was of Questlove to have as one of the very first images in the film, an announcement over the PA system of an audience member's lost wallet, which was found and could be reclaimed. Questlove also presented how we, as Black people, were so effectively able to self govern as the Black Panthers provided security for the entirety of the event (as the New York City police department initially refused to perform the job but eventually assisted) without conflict. Seeing every moment succeed was indeed the powerful message necessary to be received during a time when we left the concept of the "Negro" behind and claimed "BLACK" as our cultural identifier, one that was committed to cultivating the Black excellence that resides within ourselves and delivered from ourselves to ourselves in an incendiary musical sermon by Nina Simone and her shattering recitation of the poem "Are You Ready?"
Questlove's "Summer Of Soul" so richly provided a sprawling canvas on which we, as Black people, are represented so lovingly and fully, that we, again, are afforded the opportunity to see ourselves in ways we typically do not within media sources. Seeing each other in such a powerfully inspiring and beautiful light allows us to help us to SEE us and I can only imagine what a film like this would have been like if it were viewed by the masses in 1969.
Which leads us to the mystery and miracle of what Questlove has achieved with "Summer Of Soul," for why was a document such as this now seen for over 50 years? As the film informs us, back in 1969, there was no interest to be gathered from sources who could then attain and distribute the visual contents of this festival and broadcast them nationwide for what was deemed to be solely "a Black show." Even when attempts to capitalize upon juggernaut that was Woodstock, by referring to the Harlem Cultural Festival as "the Black Woodstock," no interest was gathered whatsoever. And so, the footage sat, leaving the art, the music, the people and the time, lost to memory and time...as if it had never happened at all.
At the outset of this review, I essentially asked the question regarding the nature of what history is. In my mind, history is the collective experience of all those who have lived through the experience and not solely the document of the one or the few who have the access to record, document and then present that particular account because in doing so, we are treated to only a certain perspective rather than the mosaic of life and lives lived. Yes, there are facts. But, just the facts do not represent the fullness of truth. Again, my fascination withthelate1960's is founded and cemented in the images and sounds that have been presented over time and decidedly through that aforementioned lens of Whiteness.
With regards to Questlove's "Summer Of Soul" (and to a certain extent, Mel Stuart's "Wattstax" as it is a film which is rarely seen or mentioned these days) Michael Wadleigh's "Woodstock" and that festival itself is the proverbial elephant in the room regarding this period of time in American history. Now do not get me wrong, I LOVE "Woodstock"!!!! I vividly remember when I first saw it and how much of it blew my head apart and even served to jet fuel my '60's fascination, to the point where Jimi Hendrix's rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" is the definitive version in my soul.
And that, is where I take issue now...
Woodstock, the three day festival, which also occurred in 1969 (and less than100 miles away from Harlem at that in Bethel, New York) and the subsequent Michael Wadleigh documentary film released in 1970 alongside the soundtrack album (released May 11, 1970), is the definitive statement, the benchmark concert film, the watershed statement of the counter culture in America and because of its cemented in stone status, it is the ONLY statement.
But why????
And who are the powers that be that have anointed it to that pedestal? Maybe it would've ascended to those heights naturally but why not have that festival plus others held, and therefore filmed, during that exact same time co-exist to represent a larger palate of the period? Why does there have to be only one and one that, again exists through the lens of Whiteness?
Yes, certainly the presence of Richie Havens and Santana injected and suggested that wider lens through which to view that period--and truthfully, the level of Blackness contained in Hendrix's fireworks are as unquestionable as they are untouchable--but Woodstock is filtered through a White perspective, one that people of color could be invited into but it is a White perspective nonetheless.
Beyond the performances, beyond the politics, beyond the presentation of Black culture and pride in 1969, the movie miracle of what Questlove's "Summer Of Soul" has achieved is found in downright startling moments and sequences when we view performers and audience members in present day watching the footage of what was thought to be forever lost, except within their own memories, which by this point may be hazy enough to almost feel as if it were a dream.
Just take a moment to ponder. So many of the performers themselves have passed on without having seen this footage and the audience members who were 19 years old at the time of the festival are now 71, making 52 years of holding onto memories that are unvalidated due to the actual material confirming those memories being hidden. What if they could have been re-watched and therefore, re-introduced for all of this time? But it wasn't and this serious omission results in an erasure of history, a history that would have served a greater purpose than just harboring a collection of songs.
At one point, an audience member now aged 71, tearfully regards the footage and exclaims, "I'm not crazy!" Precisely!!!! Because what he knew to be true but could not reach or touch or prove due to the shortsightedness, accidental or intentional, of others, has denied a culture the right and opportunity to regard itself in order to see itself, learn from itself and rejoice in itself.
Yet, now in 2021,we can.
Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson's 'Summer Of Soul (...or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)" is a film of reclamation as well as one to be rejoiced, for we now all can see how beautiful it was and how beautiful it is!
And it is also one of the very best films of 2021.
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