Time to get a little groovy as I take a look at a documentary I’ve wanted to talk about for a while—from the musician Questlove, here comes appropriately something about music, and everything that underpins it. The sixties were a turning point across culture, with the musical medium being no exception—and in the midst of social changes, wars, assassinations, we still had that desire to share in it as cultures always do. That gave us the Harlem Cultural Festival—overshadowed as it was by Woodstock, it was nevertheless a major deal for the African-American community of New York, and as we get into, sometimes that one unifying thing is all you need.
The scene is set nicely—context is king, and the context here was one of turbulence. As explained here, people in Harlem were still on edge after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and JFK, who was seen as an ally. Certain politicians in the city were trying to come around to African-Americans here, setting the stage for the festival, but of course, nothing was guaranteed.
Yet, even as the world bore witness to escalations in Vietnam and achievements like the moon landing, what mattered much more for those ignored by most of the media, disregarded by the government at large, was simply an opportunity to get behind music and faces that for once actually spoke to them—and here, we actually see highlighted and shown how important that can actually be.
The level of footage captured is impressive, considering it had to be dug out from so many sources—we get into a lot of the bands and players as well, who of course range from big names like Stevie Wonder to groups you’ve never heard of. There were black musicians aplenty of course, and what was still somewhat rare at the time was mixed bands like Sly and the Family Stone—pioneers in psychedelics and funk, even if perhaps those genres might not mean much to some these days. But I say, with about a century now of recorded popular music to access, why the hell should anyone limit themselves to what they can explore here?
As far as putting you into the time goes, this is a film that does it superbly—from framing the politics that underlined culture moreso than ever in this period, to simply making you feel what it was like just being another person in Harlem on a summer’s day in 1969, it’s all done just right to pull you right in. Check it out if you haven’t already.
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