Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (SOS) is one of the best documentaries and best films I’ve ever seen.
This is not hyperbole.
SOS exceeded my expectations and should be required viewing for all, especially for Black folks.
ALL Black Folks.
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The doc captured the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival’s E L I T E lineups of Black pop, funk, gospel, blues, Latin, folk, rock, bluegrass, and African acts, which spanned six summer weekends at Mount Morris Park in Manhattan. The festival took place less than 50 miles away from the famed Woodstock festival, which occurred during the same year during the same summer.
I wept within the first three minutes because I’d never seen Stevie Wonder play the drums. This iconic multi-instrumentalist was drumming with fury, and I was shocked. There was something about seeing that piece of footage that immediately reminded me of Black erasure.
SOS is a history lesson.
This wasn’t just a discursive, common participatory documentary showcasing archival footage from the festival. The film presented context as to why the festival was necessary, and in 1969, specifically.
💥 Social and political leaders that Black, Brown and other marginalized people looked to for hope were taken away one-by-one, back-to-back.
😔 JFK was assassinated in 1963, X in 1965, Dr. King, then RFK shortly after and Hampton later in 1968.
✊🏿 Riots, over-policing, poverty, drugs in the cities, Apollo 11, the heroin epidemic—a backdrop to the political, social, economic, and cultural times.
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The film explored almost every angle of the production—the logistics of the festival, the lack of resource allocation from the city, using the sun as lighting, financing the acts and the production on the word of other people’s commitments, location issues, security concerns—all at the height of political turmoil in New York City. It’s amazing that Tony Lawrence, the founder and emcee, had any capacity to pull off this incredible feat. Respect. 👏🏾 🧐
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When I saw Marilyn McCoo of “The 5th Dimension” re-watch the footage of her group’s performance—buckets, yo. 😭 😭 😭
She recalled that when “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” became a number-one hit, folks scrutinized the performers because they didn’t realize a Black group sang pop music or could become commercially successful. McCoo stated that the group felt “misplaced” within their class of Black musicians and prompted the question, “what color is music?”
Why can’t Black folks sing and arrange and enjoy the music we make? Most of which was borne out of pain, transformed into joy, then adapted into a watered-down version of itself.
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A shift in eras—from “Negro” to “Black.”
Seeing different generations of Black people in the crowd, some donning their Sunday’s best, others with their mid-drifts showing and natural hair on POPPINGTON.
I saw hues, I noticed textures, I peeped one of the greatest joys on this Earth: watching B L A C K people enjoy themselves. ✊🏿 ✊🏾 ✊🏽
Seeing Black people have space to enjoy their artists—poets, musicians, singers, entertainers—come together after decades of turmoil!! At their feet! And while still living in the thick of it!!
Man…truly stunning. A snapshot of a perilous time.
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Ahmir-Khalib “Questlove” Thompson delivered a masterpiece. It’s clear he followed a methodical template using Hal Tulchin’s, the director and producer who filmed of the event, original footage as a base and weaved in other elements for seamless transitions.
Thompson interviewed festival attendees, musical acts, and political leaders who provided analyses and reflections of their time at the event.
The final interview with an attendee, who was a young child during the festival, detailed the event’s aftermath. He mentioned how the festival kind of came and went like it was nothing. It was chilling because he emotionally communicated that he thought what he had experienced didn’t really happen. Like the festival was a blip, and his mind had gaslighted him into believing that, for nearly fifty years, all the pride, joy, laughter, culture, music, fun, and history didn’t actually occur.
Incredible.
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I’d recommend the documentary to anyone, with a reservation that this is not a condensed, two-hour long session of the festival’s six week production. Thompson delicately balanced the audience’s appetite for a concert film to create a historical and thoughtful retrospective of an event that was pretty much lost to the world.
SOS is one of those “sit down with every generation of the family after dinner and enjoy”-type of films.
A stand out.