One of the films nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category of the 2022 Academy Awards is “Summer of Soul (or When the Revolution Could not be Televised).”
It is available for checkout from the Madison College Libraries.
In the summer of 1969, the music festival remembered by most people is Woodstock. Woodstock has been written about and studied in great detail throughout the years.
However, another large music festival took place downstate in New York City about the same time, called the Harlem Cultural Festival. Unlike Woodstock, the Harlem Cultural Festival has been largely ignored by history.
The Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of free shows at New York’s Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) that ran six weekends in the summer of 1969.
Among the artists performing there were the 5th Dimension, Gladys Knight, Sly and the Family Stone, Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder and so many more.
The film was put together by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, a multi-talented artist better known as a musician, songwriter and disc jockey.
In fact, he was DJ for President Obama’s final White House party. He put together “Summer of Soul” by finding different footage from the time, mainly from a cameraman named Hal Tulchin, who stored his huge amount of film footage in his basement before someone finally expressed interest in it.
In an interview with National Public Radio, Questlove said he wanted to make the film not only to give a spotlight to the largely forgotten festival, but also to show young artists today that they can learn from artists of the past and how they melded music and social commentary.
Like “Summer of Soul,” the other films nominated for Best Documentary Feature this year also look at topics from a different lens than ordinarily presented. “Ascension” examines capitalism and consumerism in contemporary China from the perspective of lower-class workers.
“Attica” presents new archival film footage with interviews to offer a different look at one of the largest prison riots in American history. “Flee,” which many prognosticators think will win the category, tells the story of a gay man who flees his home in Afghanistan and resettles as a refugee in Denmark.
While these other documentaries are not yet in our catalog, they likely soon will be either physically or streaming through the library’s database, Kanopy.
We strive with our collection to maintain a diverse offering of ways to look at issues or historical events, whether it’s these documentaries or any other format.
Whether for academic school purposes or just your own individual interest, we hope you explore our resources at https://libguides.madisoncollege.edu/library.
Oh, by the way, if you’re a fan of movies and the Academy Awards, enter our movie-themed trivia contest at https://libguides.madisoncollege.edu/trivia before March 25.