#Kings of soul knight theater movie

It’s also bittersweet to see performers who are no longer with us, and to long to hear what they might have said to us. (Full disclosure: As a kid, I thought they were White, too.) Watching McCoo and Davis’ eyes well with tears as footage of their performance renders them speechless is a touching testament to how important these concerts were. Davis reveals how they came to record that song through sheer luck and a lost wallet, and McCoo stresses how important it was to perform for this Black audience because some thought The Fifth Dimension sounded too White. At the time of this festival, the group had a hit with “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In,” from the musical Hair. The most moving appearance by artists has to be Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., members of The Fifth Dimension.

As a surprise, Lin-Manuel Miranda appears to discuss the Afro-Latino performers who also took the stage, and we get a geography lesson about Spanish Harlem. Staples also recalls when she realized her father, guitarist Roebuck “Pops” Staples was writing songs with God’s lyrics atop the Devil’s music. Mavis Staples is heard in voiceover describing how moved she was to perform with gospel legend Mahalia Jackson (their duet is enough to make an atheist reconsider). Gladys Knight appears to talk about her experience, as does Stevie Wonder the latter’s performance includes a mean, jaw-dropping drum solo.

Lindsay does draw the line when Lawrence asks him to sing, because he knew just how outranked he was by the talent.Īnd what talent there is here! It’s not enough for us to see performances Thompson gives us scenes where the artists are filmed watching themselves and commenting. One talking head points out just how comfortable Lindsay was around his non-White constituents, and a clip shows him walking in Harlem during the anniversary of MLK’s death. He refers to then-mayor of New York City, John Lindsay, as “our blue-eyed soul brother,” giving the film time to inform us just how popular Lindsay was with Black and brown voters. The montage of his outfits is a high point, as are the introductions he delivers with two parts morning show brio and one part “quiet storm” smoothness. Our onscreen emcee is Tony Lawrence, a lounge singer and radio DJ with a smooth voice and even smoother threads. Even though Thompson interviewed his subjects in a contemporary timeframe, so little has changed in the struggle that they may as well have been talking to him in 1969. Jesse Jackson, and contain interviews with people who lived in the neighborhood at the time. Both films share the Staple Singers and a very young Rev. Ironically, “Wattstax” was dubbed “the Black Woodstock” simply because nobody outside of New York had heard of the Harlem Culture Festival. That notion is in such perfect sync with “Summer of Soul”’s tone, timbre, and beats that a double feature should be mandatory viewing. “For over six hours the audience heard, felt, sang, danced and shouted the living word in a soulful expression of the Black Experience,” he tells us. This explanation made me think of the 1973 concert film, “Wattstax.” In the opening scene, Richard Pryor calls the concert a commemoration of the Watts Uprising. King’s death, the Harlem Culture Festival was created. The next year, to commemorate the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the last of which set off riots in Newark, Detroit, Atlanta, and Watts in 1968. Through news and interview footage, we’re reminded of the assassinations of both Kennedys, Malcolm X, and Dr.

He sets the stage both musically and historically, beginning with the main purpose for the Harlem Culture Festival. Almost 50 years later, it was retrieved, cleaned up, and edited to serve as the backbone of “Summer of Soul.” The clips are chosen carefully, not just for the familiarity of the performers but also as context for the backstory Thompson wants to tell. Thankfully, Tulchin kept all 47 of the reels he shot in his basement. Meanwhile, 40 hours of this film’s subject faded into obscurity.

#Kings of soul knight theater movie

They made a movie out of that one a year later. There was just no interest in a concert that was “too Black,” especially during the summer of that much hyped music festival 100 miles north of Harlem. Despite the Harlem Culture Festival having a major backer in Maxwell House coffee, and an incredible array of Black and brown talent, only two hours of footage saw the light of day on WNEW Channel 5 in New York City. The concert footage is courtesy of Hal Tulchin, a television director who documented all six concerts in the hopes of putting it out for public consumption.