Summer of Soul

How does a concert attended by hundreds of thousands of people, filmed in the heart of New York City during the summer of 1969, remain largely unseen for more than 50 years? That’s the question at the heart of Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, The Roots drummer and music historian Questlove’s electric film revisits the Harlem Cultural Festival, an event that celebrated Black music, culture, and community during a pivotal moment in American history. Making his directorial debut, Questlove approaches the material with a musician’s sense of rhythm, weaving together beautifully restored concert footage, archival material, and interviews into something more powerful than a typical concert film. Summer of Soul is a joyous reminder that sometimes history’s greatest songs are the ones we haven’t heard. — Seth Dodson