Reel Classics: Summer of Soul

(…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

February is Black History Month, and this edi­tion of Reel Classics will take a look at Black his­to­ry from the year 1969.  The film is Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).  Released in 2021, it cap­tures a major music event held in Harlem dur­ing the sum­mer of 1969.  The Harlem Cultural Festival took place between June 29 and August 24, 1969.  Over 300,000 peo­ple attend­ed the fes­ti­val over the course of the six weeks.  The event cel­e­brat­ed Black his­to­ry, cul­ture, fash­ion, and...music.  The musi­cians involved in the con­certs were some of the best in the coun­try, includ­ing such groups and per­form­ers as Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone, and Mahalia Jackson to name a few. 

The event took place a year after the assas­si­na­tion of Martin Luther King, Jr., and ten­sions were still high.  Given the lev­el of dis­trust in the com­mu­ni­ty towards the police the orga­niz­ers had an arrange­ment with the Black Panthers to pro­vide secu­ri­ty dur­ing the fes­ti­val.  It was a very dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence than what was expe­ri­enced at Altamont in California that same year when the Rolling Stones had Hell’s Angels for their security.

Arrangements by the fes­ti­val orga­niz­er, Tony Lawrence, were made to have the con­certs filmed by tele­vi­sion pro­duc­er Hal Tuchin.  Over forty hours of film were record­ed and even­tu­al­ly cut down into clips for two one-hour TV spe­cials that appeared on CBS and ABC.  The tapes then end­ed up stored in a base­ment for fifty years.  Efforts by Tulchin to inter­est pro­duc­ers in releas­ing more of the con­cert film were not suc­cess­ful.  An effort in 2004 to bring the films to light nev­er came to pass, but in 2016 pro­duc­er Robert Fyvolent began to col­lab­o­rate with oth­ers after hav­ing obtained the film and tele­vi­sion rights.  Ahmir Thompson (also known as Questlove) became involved in the project as the director. 

Questlove worked to edit the forty hours down to two hours—taking five months to com­plete the edit­ing process.  This was his first effort as a director. 

In the open­ing cred­its, we see the film referred to as “A Questlove Jawn.”  He explained that “jawn” is a Philadelphia slang term mean­ing per­son, place, or thing.  Also, the sec­ond half of the title (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is adapt­ed from a poem/song by Gil Scott-Heron “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” from 1971.  This song appears on the album Pieces of Man, and if you are not famil­iar with Gil Scott-Heron, now is the time to check him out.  His music reflect­ed the times, espe­cial­ly for Black soci­ety, and he was not afraid to bring pol­i­tics to his lyrics.  He is also con­sid­ered one of the fore­run­ners of Hip-Hop.  And he is one of my favorites. 

As men­tioned above, the heart of this film may be the music, but it is also about the changes in Black America at that time.  Questlove mix­es news footage from the peri­od and cur­rent inter­views with var­i­ous musi­cians and atten­dees of the fes­ti­val.  It is music but it is also his­to­ry and cul­ture from the peri­od.  As stat­ed on the IMDb site, “Summer of Soul 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.”

From NPR Weekend Edition in July 2021:  “From the funky, open­ing groove of the film’s first song, Stevie Wonder’s slinky jam on the Isley Brothers’ ‘It’s Your Thing,’ it is obvi­ous the new doc­u­men­tary ...will be packed with lit­tle-seen, land­mark per­for­mances.  But watch a lit­tle longer, as Wonder sits behind a drumk­it to whip off a crack­ling drum solo.  As he works the kit, clips of news reports and pun­dits sur­face talk­ing about the cru­cial polit­i­cal and social issues fac­ing Black peo­ple in 1969.  And you real­ize you’re see­ing some­thing more.”  The report went on to praise Questlove and his work, stat­ing “He has reclaimed a cru­cial moment in his­to­ry, remind­ing the world of the resilience and pow­er of Black cul­ture in the process.”

Sly Stone, who also appeared with his band at Woodstock, talked about the work for change in our soci­ety.  He stat­ed, “Don’t wait for approval from your neigh­bor, because your neigh­bor might be wait­ing for you.”  When dis­cussing his deci­sion to become invest­ed in the project, Questlove talked about his sur­prise at how such an event could have been so obscure—film lying in a base­ment for fifty years.  He stat­ed “What would have hap­pened if this was allowed a seat at the table?  How much of a dif­fer­ence would that have made in my life?  That was the moment that extin­guished any doubt I had that I could do this.”

Mavis Staples, who appeared on stage with the Staple Singers, was asked about her appear­ance with one of her idols, Mahalia Jackson.  Jackson was to sing “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” one of the favorites of Martin Luther King.  Staples talked of how Mahalia Jackson was so over­come with emo­tion that she asked Mavis Staples to sing with her.  She iden­ti­fied this event as one of the “defin­ing moments” of her life.  In an inter­view, reflect­ing back on the fes­ti­val and the times, Gladys Knight said “It was­n’t just about the music.”

Rev. Jesse Jackson appears in the film both in a present-day inter­view and in footage from when he was on the stage.  He tells the crowd that Martin Luther King men­tioned that song just before he was shot.  Rev. Al Sharpton states, “Gospel was ther­a­py for the stress and pres­sure of being Black in America.  We did­n’t go to a psy­chi­a­trist.  We did­n’t go lay on a couch.  We did­n’t know any­thing about ther­a­pists.  But we knew Mahalia Jackson.” 

Along with the pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned groups and per­form­ers, oth­ers involved in the con­certs includ­ed The 5^th Dimension, The Chambers Brothers, Ray Barretto, The Edwin Hawkins Singers, Abbey Lincoln, Hugh Masekela, Max Roach, David Ruffin, Mongo Santamaria, and Cal Tjader.  Those famil­iar with these musi­cians will see that per­for­mances includ­ed R&B, soul, blues, jazz, Afro-Cuban, Latin, and gospel music.  A wide-rang­ing array of music in our society. 

The film pre­miered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2021 and won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the US Documentary Competition.  It was then picked up by Searchlight Pictures and ini­tial­ly released in the­aters and then to stream­ing ser­vices.  It received very pos­i­tive reviews from crit­ics as well.  On the Rotten Tomatoes site, the Critics Consensus states “Deftly inter­weav­ing incred­i­ble live footage with a series of reveal­ing inter­views, Summer of Soul cap­tures the spir­it and con­text of a water­shed moment while tying it firm­ly to the present.” 

Rolling Stone also praised the film and described it as “an incred­i­ble, vital act of restoration—and recla­ma­tion.”  The crit­ic for The Guardian, giv­ing the film five stars, wrote there is “a moment so strik­ing and rich with pow­er at the cen­ter of Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson’s Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) that, while watch­ing it, I actu­al­ly for­got to breathe.”

The film went on to win an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and a Grammy for Best Music Film.  It won mul­ti­ple film awards worldwide.

Though what we see in the film from the fes­ti­val is pri­mar­i­ly musi­cians, oth­er events occurred on stage over the course of the six weeks of cel­e­bra­tion.  There were speech­es from lead­ers such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, com­e­dy rou­tines from come­di­ans such as Moms Mabley and Pigmeat Markham, dance per­for­mances, and even a Miss Harlem Pageant on the last week­end.  It was a time for cel­e­bra­tion and pride in the Black com­mu­ni­ty of Harlem. 

The film may have laid in a base­ment for fifty years, but the cel­e­bra­tion is now out there in this doc­u­men­tary.  1969 was a time of change and activism across our coun­try.  Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) takes us back to that time and is a his­to­ry les­son for us.  Many of the same issues peo­ple faced then are still being dealt with today.  However, the mes­sage through much of the music and speech then, was to stay strong, fight for pos­i­tive change, and be proud.  That mes­sage is just as valid today.  If you love the music of that time, I encour­age you to watch this film, and you will cer­tain­ly hear the message. 

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) rates Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) at 8 out of 10.  Rotten Tomatoes gives it a Critics Score of 99% and an Audience Score of 98%. 

In search­ing my Roku device, I found it stream­ing for free on Tubi and also avail­able on Hulu (as well as oth­er sites at a fee).  It is not on the shelf at the Clark County Public Library, but I am sure staff there would obtain a copy if asked.

For a per­son­al per­spec­tive from some­one who saw the movie in the the­ater, check out Sabrina Puckett’s arti­cle in WinCity Voices from April 11, 2022. 

As a bonus I have includ­ed the link for the Gil Scott-Heron song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1971) along with the movie trail­er link.  Give it a lis­ten and hear the message.

Information for this Reel Classic review was gath­ered from Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb), Rotten Tomatoes, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Wikipedia.

I’ll be back soon with the next Reel Classic, but before I leave you with the trail­er below let me remind you that if you enjoy these clas­sic movies, please join me on the sec­ond Tuesday of each month at 6:00 PM at the Clark County Public Library for “Ron Kibbey’s Comedy Classics.”  I present a clas­sic com­e­dy film, usu­al­ly accom­pa­nied by a vin­tage car­toon.  Popcorn and drinks are pro­vid­ed.  More infor­ma­tion about the next film is avail­able on the library’s web­site and Facebook page, as well as the WinCity Voices Facebook page.