"Woodstock itself wasn’t the life-changing event. The life-changing event was the Woodstock movie. I wonder if this film had come out and been held up in the same light and importance, would this have made a difference in my life?" - Questlove says to Pitchfork about 'Summer of Soul', his new documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. "This film is potent enough now to work its magic in ways that it wasn’t allowed to 50 years ago. Black people and history - it’s a painful thing. That plays a role in why it’s easy to forget things. I’m very happy that people see this now. But it’s a deeper well that we have to dig, and this film might be just the beginning of it". It's in theaters and on Hulu.

The first trailer for Questlove’s documentary 'Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)', premiered at the Oscars last night (watch it below). 'Summer of Soul' focuses on the little-known history of the Harlem Cultural Festival, dubbed “the Black Woodstock,” which took place the same summer as Woodstock in 1969 over the course of six weeks in New York's Harlem. The lineup included Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and more. The clip juxtaposes many of these performances with the cultural and sociopolitical upheaval happening at the time. 'Summer of Soul' is Questlove’s directorial debut, and it was already awarded both the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival.

'Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)' documentary by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson from the Roots won the Grand Jury Prize for the best documentary as well as Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, the Wrap reports. Built around long-unseen concert footage from the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-weekend event, that first-time director Questlove uses 'Summer of Soul' as a launching pad to explore race relations and Black culture in that tumultuous time.

The Roots' Questlove will direct 'Black Woodstock', a documentary about 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival, held for one month in the summer of '69, featuring performances from Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, BB King and others, Variety reports. The film will feature previously unreleased footage shot by the late Hal Tulchin. The documentary […]