Summer of Soul is simultaneously a triumph and a failure. Chock full of fantastic previously unseen filmed performances by the likes of B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, the Staples Singers, Sly & the Family Stone, and many others, the film documents the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a mostly forgotten event that has been called a “black Woodstock.” The vintage footage is the centerpiece of the film and well worth the price of admission; essential for music fans. As wonderful as all this material is, the film also makes the same mistake as the other great “lost footage” music documentary of 2021, Peter Jackson’s Get Back. Both films’ creators make the fatal error of not trusting their audiences to stay invested without a surplus of supplemental material, such as interviews and narration, to keep everything in context. In today’s dumbed-down film culture, it was probably inevitable that this format had to be utilized. The consequence, though, is complete disconnect from any feeling of immediacy. The great rock documentaries of the late 60s – the era in which Summer of Soul and Get Back both take place – used a technique called “direct cinema” or cinema verité, in which the stories were always told in the present tense, “fly on the wall” style, without any framing devices or explanatory text. They just used the footage taken live to recreate an experience comparable to a concert-goer at the events in question. This was seen in D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back and Monterey Pop, Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Rolling Stone’s Rock ‘n Roll Circus and Let it Be, as well as Michael Wadleigh’s Woodstock. It’s largely a lost art form, but if ever there was an opportunity to revive it effectively, it was with Summer of Soul and Get Back. I’m probably the only one who would have this reservation about both films, but it’s unfortunate that the producers couldn’t take the opportunity to match the style of their films to the era they depict. It would have made them that much more special.
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