Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). That film, about the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 (also known as “the Black Woodstock”) is now on cinematic release and streaming at Hulu.
The Memphis Country Blues Festival festival took place across three days in late May, 1969 at the city’s Overton Park Band Shell. This coming together of cultures took place on the very site where the Ku Klux Klan had held rallies.
Rolling Stone reports that some 17 hours of footage was filmed by Gene Rosenthal, head of the independent blues label Adelphi, founded the year before. Rosenthal went over budget processing the material, and parts of the film were broadcast, but only on local TV at the time. The executive began to discuss the archive with Fat Possum’s founders Bruce Watson and Matthew Johnson in more recent years and the new film version, featuring much unseen material, has been directed by Joe LaMattina.
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