The Harlem Cultural Festival was filled with stars from soul, R&B, blues and jazz and drew more than 300,000 people. Questlove directs this breathtaking chronicle of Black culture in a pivotal moment.

Transcript

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

A long-forgotten Harlem event finally gets its due in the new concert documentary, "Summer Of Soul." The film is now in cinemas and streaming on Hulu. NPR TV critic, Eric Deggans, has this review.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: (Singing) Baby, baby, baby, about your plan to make me blue.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: It's no surprise to learn that a documentary focused on the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, an event so star-studded they called it the Black Woodstock, would be packed with jaw-dropping musical performances, including a little group on Motown called Gladys Knight and the Pips.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: (Singing) Don't you know that I heard it through the grapevine? Oh, I heard it through...

DEGGANS: But the concert footage in "Summer Of Soul" is just now being revealed to audiences in 2021. The film is subtitled "...Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised," in a sly reference to a Gil Scott-Heron song. But it's also a wry comment on how such a momentous event for Black people could be overlooked for decades. "Summer Of Soul" recreates the festival's spirit, using the performances as inspiration to talk about a crucial time for Black America.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

CHAMBERS BROTHERS: (Singing) Hey. You like it like that. Yeah. Uh.

DEGGANS: Take, for example, the Chambers Brothers' ode to Harlem, "Uptown."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

CHAMBERS BROTHERS: (Singing) Do it to it. I'm going uptown to Harlem.

DEGGANS: Using that song as a backdrop, the film describes Harlem as a cultural oasis for Black people. In a new interview, the Reverend Al Sharpton recalls debates back then over using violence to fight oppression.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

AL SHARPTON: The Black community was divided between those that were advocating nonviolence. But most of my friends was with those that were saying self-defense and or worse.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: And if that means tearing up the community to gain our freedom, we will.

CHAMBERS BROTHERS: (Singing) Hey.

DEGGANS: If this heady remix of interviews, ideas and music feels like the work of a master DJ, well, that's because it is. "Summer Of Soul" is the directorial debut of Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, the renowned DJ, drummer and producer. Questlove crams the movie with little-seen, eye-popping live performances from stars like Sly and the Family Stone and Stevie Wonder. In new interviews, musicians reflect on what performing at the festival meant to them.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

MARILYN MCCOO: We were constantly being attacked because...

BILLY DAVIS JR.: Yeah.

MCCOO: ...We weren't, quote, unquote, "Black enough."

DEGGANS: That's Marilyn McCoo, member of the 5th Dimension, tearing up while watching footage of their performance.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

MCCOO: Sometimes we were called the Black group with the white sound. We didn't like that. That was one of the reasons why performing in Harlem was so important to us...

DAVIS JR.: Mmm hmm.

MCCOO: ...Because we wanted our people to know what we were about.

DEGGANS: One of the film's most affecting moments comes when gospel legend Mahalia Jackson sings "Take My Hand, Precious Lord."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

MAHALIA JACKSON: (Singing) Lord.

DEGGANS: It was a favorite song of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who'd been assassinated one year earlier.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

JACKSON: (Singing) I want you to linger near.

DEGGANS: Earlier in the film, the Reverend Sharpton explains why gospel is so important in Black culture.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

SHARPTON: Gospel was the therapy for the stress and pressure of being Black in America. We didn't go to a psychiatrist. We didn't go lay on the couch. We didn't know anything about therapists. But we knew Mahalia Jackson.

DEGGANS: The Harlem Cultural Festival drew 300,000 people over six free concerts in the summer of 1969. Director Hal Tulchin filmed it all. But the Woodstock festival, which occurred in the same year, completely overshadowed it. No TV or film companies were interested in the footage, which sat in Tulchin's basement for decades. That's why the work of Questlove and his producers in shaping the material into such an emotional, nostalgic, insightful story is so important. He's reclaimed a crucial moment in history, reminding the world of the resilience and power of Black culture.

I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "SUMMER OF SOUL")

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing) Here in my (ph) - clap your hands. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Tags: Questlove  Series: Pop Culture Happy Hour