Summer of Soul

Best known as the band leader for The Roots, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson makes his filmmaking debut with this documentary and concert film celebrating Black culture, fashion, music, and history. It offers a look at artists such as Stevie Wonder and Sly & the Family Stone in never-before-seen appearances. With 98% on the Tomatometer and a prize-winning screening at the most recent Sundance Film Festival, it’s already a can’t-miss event before even watching the teaser.

The teaser opens with live shots of the festival—of course—and some audio of an announcer and a percussionist playing off him with impromptu fills. Like many another musical biopic of concert documentary trailers, whatever else happens, the primacy of live sound—and the liminal state it promises—comes first. Of the minute-long trailer, a full twenty seconds is dedicated to live musical performance.

That being established, when you see the subtitle of the film (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), you immediately know there is only one appropriate choice of soundtrack for the remainder. Yes: it’s Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. It’s both apt, as this particular parallel revolution to Woodstock 1969 was indeed filmed at the time and not televised for another good fifty-two years. The subtitle is also happily ironic in the sense that the documentary would eventually indeed find its way to screens worldwide.

Also in keeping with the choice of song, the teaser is overtly oriented to a social justice paradigm, anchoring the close of the civil rights era to the present moment. The Harlem Culture Festival promises to make its way here to a mass audience, shared with impeccable timeliness. Footage of protest is interleaved with passionate musicianship as the music reaches a fever pitch; there are subtle but present moments of synchronisation between some key beats and the musicians’ onscreen playing.

Cleverly, the choice of music thematically focuses on one of the conceits of the film—the allure of new footage, newly televised. It also holds back arguably the most attractive element of the footage for interest and intrigue, that being of course the live concert music. It offers a firm sense of the subject while refraining from giving it all away.

Summer of Soul hits theatres and arrives on Hulu on July 2nd.

— Curtis Perry