UB Preview: ‘Summer of Soul’ | UB Minneapolis Advance Screening

UrbanBridgez.com June 28, 2021

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In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion.

“Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” was 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 & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more.

“Summer of Soul,” will be released theatrically by Searchlight Pictures and will begin streaming on Hulu in the U.S. on July 2nd, 2021.

Interviewed For “Summer of Soul”

Roy Ayers
Ethel Beatty-Barnes
Barbara Bland-Acosta
Mike Boone
Dorinda Drake
Sheila E
Margot Edman
Greg Errico
Anthony Flood
Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Cyril “Bullwhip” Innis Jr.
Reverend Jesse Jackson
Musa Jackson
Gladys Knight
Adrienne Kryor
Alan Leeds
Darryl Lewis
Selema Masekela
Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis
Jim McFarland
Lin-Manuel & Luis Miranda
Denise Oliver-Velez
Roger Parris
Raoul Roach
Chris Rock
Reverend Al Sharpton
Mavis Staples
Sylvester Stone
Greg Tate
Stevie Wonder
Sue Yellin
Allen Zerkin

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson seeks to recover the meaningful spirit of the past – when the biggest names in African-American music, culture, and politics came together for six consecutive weeks for a landmark, transformational Black cultural event.

By way of intimate, newly restored footage, and recent interviews with attendees and the artists who performed, Summer of Soul documents the moment when the old school of the Civil Rights movement and new school of the Black Power movement shared the same stage, highlighted by an array of genres including soul, R&B, gospel, blues, jazz, and Latin.

The initial directive for the festival was laid out by the City of New York and emcee Tony Lawrence, a charismatic lounge singer and performer himself, to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination under the banner of Black unity. New York City had thrown smaller versions of The Harlem Cultural Festival in ’67 and ’68, though the smaller events felt more like casual, block parties. But the festival in 1969 was supersized – some thought the expanded version was intended to divert the local population from additional rioting brought on by the anniversary of King’s death. New York City Mayor John Lindsay walked the streets of Harlem in a bid to quell the unrest, and became a key backer of the festival. Television veteran Hal Tulchin was brought on to shoot six concerts that summer, inking a sponsorship deal with Maxwell House Coffee to finance the giant production. Tulchin decided to face the stage westward to take advantage of the sun’s natural light, ultimately, so he could tape the entire festival from start to finish. Though NYPD officers were present at each concert, Lawrence elinsted the help of the Black Panthers to act as security – to protect citizens of Harlem from the police.

New York City’s affiliate television station WNEW Metromedia Channel 5 (now FOX) broadcast two hour-long specials of the footage, but after that summer, Tulchin was told there was little interest in a “Black Woodstock.” “It was a peanuts operation because nobody really cared about Black shows,” Tulchin told Smithsonian in 2007, “but I knew it was going to be like real estate, and sooner or later someone would have interest in it.”