1969, a lot of crazy stuff happened in America that year. A lot of culture changes were afoot. The Woodstock music festival has a historic place in the consciousness of North American society, especially white society; largely due to the fact that the documentary
Woodstock won the Oscar for best documentary in 1970. Everyone has seen it (if you haven't, more film homework for you). What I didn't know, what the world didn't know was100 miles away in Harlem, in New York City there was an almost all-black music festival known as the Harlem Cultural Festival - a festival that spanned over six weekends at fifty thousand people at a time. That's 300,000 people, a mostly all black audience, listening to some of the greatest black artists of the time (except for Jimi, he was at Woodstock) and nobody knows anything about it; well that is, until now. Summer of Soul is the documentary about this festival, it's place of relevance to the people who lived in Harlem, for those who attended, and those who performed. It's as culturally significant as Woodstock, both for the music and the fact that it was ignored. Ignored nor more. Summer of Soul is much watch viewing for both its importance in the place of history but also for the great music of Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension, and Gladys Knight (to name some of the highlights). We get to see Stevie Wonder playing drums! Amazing! Catch this wonderful time capsule on Disney+ or in theatres if you can.
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