Sundance review: Ahmir 'Questlove' Thompson's 'Summer of Soul' is a vital lesson in Black history that you can dance to

“Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

★★★★

Appearing in the U.S. Documentary competition of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Can be streamed through the festival digital portal on Saturday, January 30. Running time: 117 minutes.

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With a historian’s eye, a musician’s ear and an activist’s heart, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has fashioned an important document of a vital era with “Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).”

It’s also a great music to dance in the aisles on the way to demanding social change that’s been denied long before 1969, when this amazing story takes place.

Here’s the scene: It’s Harlem, in the summer of 1969, in the weeks before the music festival known as Woodstock made headlines upstate a hundred miles. The Harlem Culture Festival took place over six weekends, with concerts in Mt. Morris Park in Harlem — with a line-up of some of the best talent Black America had to offer.

Much of it was filmed for posterity — and that footage sat untouched in a basement, until Thompson started working on this movie.

It’s an embarrassment of riches that Thompson has to work with, and like the bandleader he is (of The Roots), he starts by assembling a dream playlist. Start with Stevie Wonder, then move on to some of the old reliables, like B.B. King and Herbie Mann, and slide into some of the young hitmakers of the day, like The 5th Dimension and Gladys Knight & The Pips. Include a healthy dose of gospel, topped by the legend Mahalia Jackson handing off to a young Mavis Staples. Move into some Motown, and then Sly and the Family Stone. Don’t forget some Puerto Rican and Afro-Cuban acts, a song by South Africa’s Hugh Masekela, and then give the stage to Nina Simone. Finish with encores by Wonder and Sly.

If all Thompson did was play the hits, that would be enough. But Thompson adds interviews from participants and attendees that bring the moments alive — commenting on what it felt like to be there, and even smelled like (“chicken and Afro Sheen,” as one concertgoer put it). The interviews also set the context for the shows, just over a year after Marrtin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, as America sent a disproportionate number of Black men to Vietnam while flying two white military pilots to the moon.

There are some gems in the new interview footage — like seeing Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. watching themselves in The 5th Dimension, or Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father, Luis, explaining the crossover of Latin and Caribbean sounds into soul and R&B. And the historical side never overwhelms the musical side, but also never feels like an afterthought.

By blending the history with the music so gracefully, Thompson has created a document of a 1969 event that feels as alive as if it happened last year. Put “Summer of Soul” on a double-bill with “Woodstock,” and see which one is the nostalgia trip and which one is relevant to what’s happening now.