Synopsis
During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Stevie WonderSelf
- Lin-Manuel MirandaSelf
- Chris RockSelf
- Tony LawrenceSelf
- Nina SimoneSelf (archive footage)
- B.B. KingSelf (archive footage)
- Abbey LincolnSelf
- Mavis StaplesSelf
- Mahalia JacksonSelf (archive footage)
- David RuffinSelf
Recommendations
- 100
The Guardian
The lack of awareness of this event is another tragic example of black history being ignored. Only this time the record survived, and now we all get to share in it. - 100
The Hollywood Reporter
Summer of Soul is as thoughtful as it is rousing, a welcome shot of adrenaline to kick off not just a film festival but a new year. - 100
The Playlist
The genuinely revelatory combined effect of the interviews, concert footage, and pure elation aside, there remains an undercurrent of bristling frustration bubbling beneath the film’s surface. 52 years? That’s how long “Summer of Soul” sat unseen, hidden from the public? If work this important can be squirreled away from view for this long, and if we let our imaginations run wild, then who knows how many other stories lie buried in anonymity, or where. - 100
Variety
It’s a music documentary like no other, because while it’s a joyful, cataclysmic, and soulfully seductive concert movie, what it’s really about is a key turning point in Black life in America. - 91
Consequence
A revelatory burst of Black history suffused with the joy and struggle that made it possible. - 91
The Film Stage
It’s better defined as an archeological excavation, a confirmation of distant recollection, returned and restored. You have to wonder how many other dusty canisters like it are still lying around. - 90
Screen Daily
The performances are often revelatory, but the sense of history coming alive — of the past speaking to the present — is even more riveting. - 85
Slashfilm
Overall, the electricity of the music and the novelty of seeing some of these performers absolutely shred during this period of their careers easily overshadows any of its flaws.
