Questlove’s ‘Summer of Soul’ Documentary Is Two Hours of Pure Joy

There are plenty of new movies to watch on streaming this 4th of July holiday weekend, but if you’re going to pick just one, make it Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). This documentary—which is now in theaters and streaming on Hulu in the U.S.—is not just a must-watch for music lovers. It’s a must-watch for everyone.

The directorial debut of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, best known as the frontman of the hip hop band the Roots, Summer of Soul is on a mission to correct a gap in music history. The summer of ’69 has long been remembered as a momentous time for not just music, but the entire hippie counterculture movement, thanks to the Woodstock music festival in upstate New York. But that same summer, just a hundred miles south in New York City, there was another festival that had folks dancing in the streets: the Harlem Cultural Festival.

Over the course of six weeks, Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in Central Harlem hosted packed performances from Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more. And here’s the kicker: Just like the Woodstock festival, the entire Harlem Cultural Festival was captured on film. But unlike Woodstock, whose legacy was cemented by Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary, the majority of the footage of the Harlem festival—filmed by producer Hal Tulchin—was never commercially released. Until now.

From the very first scene, you’ll immediately see why Thompson made it his mission to get this footage in front of as many eyeballs as possible. It’s like stepping out a time machine at the coolest moment in history possible. You’ll see 19-year-old Stevie Wonder tearing up a drum solo, you’ll see Nina Simone leading the crowd in cheers of “Black is beautiful,” you’ll see Gladys Knight belting out “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” and most importantly, you’ll see a huge crowd of people—the vast majority of whom are Black—having the absolute time of their lives.

It’s the joy that makes Summer of Soul so special, even more than the incredible archival footage of this forgotten chapter of music history. (Though that part is pretty darn great.) Thompson is a natural storyteller, picking and choosing the best moments to feature on-screen, and the footage is expertly edited by Joshua L. Pearson. Thompson peppers in talking-head interviews, including a touching moment where present-day members of The 5th Dimension watch back the footage of themselves in 1969, tearing up at the memories even as they critique their fashion sense.

Despite his status as a voice in the music industry, Thompson opts to stay behind the scenes, never stepping in front of the camera himself. There’s really no need to pull in historical or political context when it’s all right there on the screen already, but it just so happens that Stevie Wonder’s performance was happening at the same time as the moon landing. The Harlem residents who are interviewed in man-on-the-street segments showed little interest in the event. “It’s cash wasted as far as I’m concerned,” one man says. “[The cash] used in getting to the moon could have been used to feed poor Black people in Harlem, and all over.”

That disdain—intercut with clips of white people excited about the moon landing, and in the context of how meaningful Harlem residents clearly found the Cultural Festival—is a reminder of just how biased our history books truly are. Summer of Soul can’t undo that, but it does make moves in the right direction. Plus, it’s a blast to watch. And be sure to watch through the end of the credits, for a few extra moments of joy.

Watch Summer of Soul on Hulu