Questlove’s ‘Summer of Soul’ Heads to Hulu Following Sundance Debut

Questlove’s Summer of Soul documentary is heading to Hulu as part of a historic Sundance deal. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures and Hulu have acquired worldwide rights to the music documentary, which won a top prize at the festival’s awards ceremony. Sources tell THR that the Summer of Soul sale was the biggest ever for a Sundance documentary, beating out Apple’s $12 million purchase of Boys State last year.

The directorial debut of The Roots’ Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) centers on the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, hailed at the time as the Black Woodstock. Summer of Soul features 40 hours of never-before-seen archival footage of performances from Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder, among more top musical talent.

THR reports that Summer of Soul will be released theatrically despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The documentary will also stream on Hulu in the United States and internationally on Disney’s Star and Star+ service.

After earning rave reviews and two major awards (the audience award and the U.S. documentary competition grand jury prize) at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, Questlove’s Summer of Soul became one of the hottest commodities of the year. With the Hulu and Searchlight sale, the film has become the most expensive documentary in the history of Sundance, beating out previous record-holders Boys State and Knock Down the House, for which Netflix paid $10 million in 2019.

“I’m so honored to be allowed to manifest my dreams after all this time,” said Questlove in a statement. “This is truly an honor. Summer Of Soul is a passion project and to have it resonate with so many people on so many levels has been incredibly rewarding.”

Summer of Soul was produced by David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, and Joseph Patel, with RadicalMedia serving as creative and production partners. Davis Guggenhei’s Concordia Studio also executive produced.

“It’s been overwhelming to watch audiences rediscover this lost piece of history and fall in love with our film,” said Dinerstein and Fyvolent, per THR. “As people are struggling to restore their lives in the midst of a pandemic, we feel this film will bring joy, together with a needed reexamination of important social issues.”