The hippest party of the year arrives this weekend, when Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s debut documentary, “Summer of Soul (…or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” arrives in theaters and on Hulu on Friday. This concert doc will have you dancing from start to finish, even if it’s from the comfort of your living room.
In the summer of 1969, Woodstock changed the culture, and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. But something equally significant was happening in Harlem, with the Harlem Cultural Festival concert series celebrating Black music, art and culture over the course of six Sundays at Mount Morris Park. Featuring performances from B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips, David Ruffin, Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, Hugh Masekela and Nina Simone, among others, the concerts were filmed for a potential TV special. When no one was interested, the tapes sat forgotten in a basement for 50 years.
Thompson — known by his moniker Questlove, a member of The Roots and Jimmy Fallon’s house band, as well as a DJ, producer, raconteur and more — has rescued the footage for his glorious directorial debut, “Summer of Soul.” He contextualizes the moment of the Harlem Cultural Festival, a time of Black pride and Black power, a cautious euphoria after the violence and bloodshed of 1968, which saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The summer of ’68 was bloody, but the summer of ’69 was about radical change.
You won’t want “Summer of Soul” to end, but when it inevitably does, here are some streaming documentaries that will help to fill the void.