Summer of Soul, Mahalia Jackson & Mavis Staples stealing the show

Frank Film Club with Maisie Williams

This week we are chatting about the Oscar and BAFTA winning documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (2021) directed by Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson.

During the same summer as Woodstock, a different music festival took place 100 miles away. More than 300,000 people attended the summer concert series known as the Harlem Cultural Festival. It was filmed, but after that summer, the footage sat in a basement for 50 years. Only now has that footage been shown to the world.

In this episode we discuss the erasure of history, how the unseen footage came to be found and how the performances brought up different subject matters.

Summer of Soul (2021) is available to watch on Disney +.

Next week we’ll be looking at the Oscar winning film CODA (2021), directed by Sian Heder. We will also be joined by Troy Kotsur, who won Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards for his performance in this film. CODA is available to watch on Apple TV.

Transcript available here.

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