'Summer of Soul' and 'Dick Gregory' offer windows into the civil-rights era
CNN
A pair of documentaries showcase strong directing debuts by Black filmmakers for the Fourth of July weekend: "Summer of Soul" transforms long-lost video into an intoxicating and layered look back at the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969; and "The One and Only Dick Gregory" celebrates the comedian who dropped the stand-up mic to take up the mantle of civil-rights activism.
In an impressive curatorial feat, musician Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson directed what's fully titled "Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)," which focuses on a musical program that had been lost to history: A six-week Harlem concert series that featured a dizzying array of acts and attracted roughly 50,000 patrons every week. The event, however, unfurled in the shadow of Woodstock, and the footage sat dormant for a half-century, making the raw performances alone enough to turn "Summer of Soul" -- which premieres in theaters as well as on Hulu -- into what feels like a genuine event.More Related News
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