Watch a trailer for Questlove’s Summer of Soul documentary
We can now catch our first glimpse of Questlove‘s directorial debut, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), following its Sundance premiere earlier this year.
The documentary revisits the influential Harlem Cultural Festival, also known as the “Black Woodstock,” which celebrated Black history, culture and fashion over six weeks in the summer of 1969 (while Woodstock was happening just a hundred miles upstate). Although the festival was captured on film, the footage went unseen and largely forgotten until now.
Summer of Soul features never-before-seen performances by Stevie Wonder, The Staple Singers, Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and more. It “shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present,” according to Searchlight Pictures.
The film took home both the U.S. Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival this February.
Watch the trailer below. Summer of Soul will be released on Hulu and in theaters July 2.