Summer of Soul

Ironically, this film about the black Woodstock is not quite a parallel as the documentary about that more famous music festival. This film’s flaw, if it is that, is that it leaves you wanting more of the performances, rather than the mix of performances and interviews. But that’s hardly Questlove's or the producers’ fault, since most of what we see here from July of '69 is previously lost footage, scenes that have a found-object feel to them. You work with what you have—and in this case, what Q and crew had was a collection of remarkable performances and fascinating pieces of contextualizing views of the park, the crowd, and Harlem in general. The biggest takeaway from this work is the depiction of joy surrounding the music, and the performers and the community who forged such a meaningful connection through the event.