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A forgotten cultural event featuring Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, and more is rediscovered.
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SUMMER OF SOUL is part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten-until now. 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. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more
"In American music history, Woodstock has long been considered the great 20th century milestone, a unique event that brought together thousands of people and the most acclaimed musicians of the moment. But, as is often the case with the historical canon, it's worth putting it into perspective, and 'Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)' comes to do just that. Winner of the Audience Award and Jury Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, this documentary directed by musician and filmmaker Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson is based on a masterful restoration of totally unseen footage shot during the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (in the midst of the civil rights movement in the United States) and forgotten by time. The film explores why, despite being a celebration of African-American culture with the presence of legends like Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson and Nina Simone, the festival did not achieve the same impact and status within our time's popular culture. Undoubtedly one of the great documentaries of the era that claims one of the turning points in the black history of the United States, and invites us to rethink history in a more critical way."