DOCUMENTARY A SOULFUL DELIGHT

History might be written by the victors, but the musicians featured in this extraordinary documentary lay down a powerful counter rhythm.

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is the untold story of a music festival that took place 160 kilometres south of Woodstock that same summer of 1969.

The Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured groundbreaking artists such as Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone and Gladys Knight & the Pips, has been largely forgotten – until now.

While it’s hard to imagine how this archival footage could have languished in a basement for so long, 50 years couped up in film cannister has done nothing to dampen the vitality of the performances. When gospel singer Mahalia hands the microphone to a young Mavis Staples during “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”, after the Reverend Jesse Jackson pays tribute to the late Martin Luther King Jr, audiences from two eras are enraptured.

Nina Simone simultaneously expresses pain, rage, tenderness and immense power in a heartstopping rendition of “Young, Gifted and Black”.

Summer of Soul, which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, is helmed by firsttime filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Thompson’s direction is light and unobtrusive. Interweaving archival footage with contemporary interviews, he teases out the larger social and political implications – of the concerts and their “disappearance” as well as the current cultural context. Summer of Soul’s timing is impeccable. The recovered footage is precious, arresting and beautifully restored.

Summer of Soul is now screening in cinemas and on STAR on Disney+ from September 29.