Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson) (Patreon)

57/100

Not sure there's ever been a filmed musical performance that I was happy to see interrupted by archival footage and/or talking heads. This practice (and it's incessant here) would have irked me even had Questlove solely contextualized the '69 Harlem Cultural Festival itself; if you must have retrospective interviews, please place them between the numbers, not during the numbers. But he actually creates a mini-documentary for nearly every act, so that e.g. "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" sparks a detour into just how The 5th Dimension decided to combine those two Hair songs and create their first chart-topper. Not without interest, to be sure, but barely relevant to the film's ostensible subject. (As opposed to, say, Davis and McCoo talking about the joy and pride they felt playing in Harlem, at a time when people frequently assumed the group to be white.) Also, while it's shameful that this footage remained unseen for half a century, the repeated comparison to Woodstock is misleading. Only those paying close attention will catch that (a) this wasn't the first Harlem Cultural Fest (or even the second) and (b) it took place over six separate weekends, encompassing half the summer. Not at all the same epic event as Woodstock's four nearly continuous days (with bands playing through the night; Sly and the Family Stone's slot began at 3:30am); it was closer in spirit to Central Park SummerStage, the annual free concert series at which I saw everyone from Cibo Matto and Sleater-Kinney to Dar Williams back in the mid-'90s. (Shifted to a Prospect Park version in the aughts, after I moved to Park Slope.) Still an amazing lineup, of course, and I'd almost certainly have preferred Summer of Soul to Woodstock had it been released in 1970...which is to say, had nobody felt obligated to combine a traditional concert film with this (invaluable) Rolling Stone article. I can read the history in rich detail. I cannot, however, read Mahalia Jackson singing a duet with Mavis Staples*. I cannot read Nina Simone casually pulverizing piano keys throughout "Are You Ready Black People?" I cannot read 19-year-old Stevie Wonder on the goddamn drums. And all of that's in the movie, which has me wondering what was omitted in order to make room for a primer on MLK's assassination and the significance of "Take My Hand, Precious Lord." Brief enough, but those footnotes-that-obscure-the-text add up. 

* Admittedly made more powerful by Staples' recollection of how it came about; thankfully, Questlove sequesters her voiceover at the beginning and end of their performance. Doesn't trust Jesse Jackson to convey 4 April '68, though.