Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was largely forgotten–until now. Summer of Soul shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more.
For thoughts on Summer Of Soul, please see my previous conversation here.
Video Quality
Summer Of Soul comes to DVD with a strong 480p transfer that presents the movie really well. This film is a mixture of new talking head interviews with the majority of the feature consisting of newly-restored archival footage, which provides different levels of visual quality. The recent interviews obviously look noticeably better than the archival footage, but the fact that we have all this footage at all is a bit of a miracle. Overall, the quality of each source seems to be derived from the best elements available. Skin tones look natural and details hold up fairly well. Colors are a bit flat and black levels are subject to some crush and compression artifacting. The image is a bit soft in certain situations with noticeable haziness under less favorable scenarios. A Blu-Ray release would have been incredible, but the standard definition presentation does not seem as big of a hindrance during the archival footage. This may not be a high definition presentation, but the image is very strong and quite pleasing given the format limitations.
Audio Quality
The DVD comes with a Dolby Digital 5.1 track that feels like more a drawback for this film than the video limitations. Since music is so important to the film, it would have been great to have full lossless audio for these performances. Dialogue is at least pretty consistently clear throughout with only occasional moments where sounds from the clips muddle the clarity of the subject’s words. Surround speakers add a lot of texture to the proceedings which aids in transporting you to this festival. This track appears to be free from any damage or other issues that would substantially lessen your enjoyment. This presentation gets the job done, but the music is not quite as powerful as it could be with the limitations.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: Director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson delivers an unbelievable commentary track in which he discusses how Stevie Wonder made him watch movies differently, the interview subject who raised his doubts, the process of transferring the tape to digital, the process of identifying audience members from Twitter, putting his personal stamp on the project, designing the title card… and that is all the first ten minutes. Thompson rarely takes a pause in the course of delivering so much amazing information that fans will eat up. This is reason enough to get the disc.
- Soul Searching: A three-minute promotional piece in which Thompson briefly explains how he came to know about the festival and the process of restoring the footage from the festival. There are also discussions about the culture of the time and what this festival meant for the people who attended it. This almost feels like an extended trailer, but it is still fun.
- Harlem – Then & Now: A three-minute piece in which Thompson walks you through Mount Morris Park in the present as he discusses what it was like during the period of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
Final Thoughts
Summer Of Soul is a stunning documentary which goes beyond a simple presentation of a concert to explore the larger cultural context of the event. The way in which Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents this footage is as important as the raw components that make it up. Even at the most basic level, you can appreciate the unbelievable concert footage you have of these performers delivering some of their most ferocious performances. There are certain moments when even further examination could have elevated the film, but this does not lessen the stunning nature of this achievement. Searchlight Pictures has released a DVD which sports a decent A/V presentation and a few special features that add a lot of value to the disc. It’s great that this can be purchased on physical media at all, so if you are a fan you should not hesitate to add to your collection. Recommended
Summer Of Soul is currently available to purchase on DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the DVD.
Disclaimer: Searchlight Pictures has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
