Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Questlove’s Documentary, ‘Summer Of Soul,’ Wins A Peabody Award

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Questlove 2022 TIME Gala
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Questlove’s documentary, Summer Of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) was one of two music documentaries that received Peabody Awards this year. In Summer Of Soul, Questlove details the events of the 1969 Harlem Cultural festival, which has gone largely overlooked in history.

“It was an honor to do this film and it’s an honor to receive this accolade,” said Quest during his acceptance speech (per Billboard), “and not just for my ego or for my personal achievement, but it was an honor to serve history.”

The award was presented to Questlove by Alicia Keys. Melissa Haizlip, who directed the PBS documentary Mr. Soul — which recounts the life of her uncle, Ellis Haizlip — also won a Peabody Award for her music documentary, and was presented with her award by Morgan Freeman. Ellis Haizlip was the creator, producer and host of the 1968-73 TV series Soul, which was known for showcasing Black music, dance, and culture.

“Whether exposing injustice, detailing uncomfortable truths, or making us laugh uncontrollably, all of the winners demonstrated how to tell a compelling story,” said Jeffrey Jones, executive director of Peabody, in a statement. “With an ongoing pandemic, political obstructionism, and senseless wars continuing to take and disrupt lives, these programs pushed past many obstacles to tell important stories that will stand the test of time. Peabody is proud to honor their incredible work.”

Questlove Was ‘Rattled’ While Giving His Oscars Speech After The Will Smith Slap, He Confirms

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Questlove The Roots 94th Annual Academy Awards Oscars 2022
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At this year’s Academy Awards, Questlove got the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, for Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised). That was the biggest moment of his night, but the main takeaway of the event more broadly happened immediately before, when Chris Rock, who was on stage to present the documentary award, got slapped by Will Smith. Now, it seems Questlove confirmed that while giving his acceptance speech, he was (understandably) thrown off by what happened just moments earlier.

Yesterday, a Twitter user wrote, “I think the whole Will Smith assault rattled @questlove who had to give a speech like 90 seconds later. He couldn’t even remember the names of his co-winners. #Oscars.” Questlove responded with just an emoji of a fax machine. Emojipedia notes the fax machine emoji is “sometimes used in emoji form as an alternative to the words ‘facts,’ due to the similarity of pronunciation.” So, based on Questlove’s usage of it, it looks like he’s confirming he was indeed rattled while giving his speech.

Meanwhile, before sending that tweet, Questlove talked about the win on The Tonight Show, with neither him nor Jimmy Fallon directly mentioning Smith or Rock. Questlove told Fallon he was meditating during the commercial break before the award was presented. He also noted, “I realized that that was a real moment, like, maybe three seconds before I spoke words. In my mind, they’re just doing a sketch or whatever and I’m just like, ‘OK Ahmir, remember to thank your mom, your dad, thank Tariq [Trotter, aka Black Thought of The Roots]…’ So I was not present at all. I was just in a blank slate.”

Watch Questlove on The Tonight Show below.

George Wallace Wants To Make Sure That Questlove’s Oscar Win Isn’t Overshadowed By The Will Smith Slapping Skirmish

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Ahmir Questlove Thompson 94th Annual Academy Awards Oscars 2022
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Chris Rock wasn’t the only casualty of Will Smith’s rage at Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony. Sure, it was Rock’s face that absorbed the power of Smith’s smack after the comedian made a joke about the King Richard star’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. But the confusion that ensued in the moments following the unexpected skirmish left many viewers trying to piece together what they had just seen, as the American broadcast cut the live feed in order to censor Smith’s language and some of what had happened. Had it all been a skit?

As viewers feverishly texted friends and checked Twitter to see what exactly they had missed, one person seemed to get lost in the shuffle: Questlove, the Philly-born musician who first rose to fame as the frontman for The Roots, and who has racked up credits as a songwriter, record producer, author, actor, film producer, and director (when he’s not heading up the house band for The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon).

It was Questlove, a.k.a. Ahmir Thompson, who ended up inching one step closer to an EGOT when he won the Oscar for Best Documentary for Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), an outstanding reminder of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a celebration of Black music and culture, which was largely overshadowed by Woodstock, as the two events partly overlapped.

Fortunately, legendary comedian/actor George Wallace made sure to call out Questlove’s achievement, and assure Quest—who directed and executive produced the doc—that “We saw that sh*t, Quest!”

Questlove appreciated, and felt, the love.

Meanwhile, Smith has officially issued an apology to Rock for how things went down at last night’s ceremony, saying that he is “a work in progress.” Maybe an “I’m sorry” to Questlove will come next.

Questlove Got Emotional Accepting His Best Documentary Oscar For ‘Summer Of Soul’

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Chris Rock was supposed to present the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 94th Academy Awards last night. He did do that, but that wasn’t the takeaway from his time on stage, given that after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith got on stage and slapped him.

After the incident, though, Rock did manage to present the award, giving it to Questlove’s film Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised). In an already emotionally charged atmosphere, Questlove (who shook Smith’s hand and hugged him on his way to the stage) gave an acceptance speech, in which he too got emotional.

Pausing on multiple occasions, Questlove said:

“It’s not lost on me that the Harlem Cultural Festival should have been something that my beautiful mother… and my dad… should have taken me to when I was 5 years old, and… This is such a stunning moment for me right now. But this is not about me. This is about marginalized people in Harlem that needed to heal from pain. And just know that in 2022, this is not just a 1969 story about marginalized people in Harlem. This is a story of… I’m sorry, I’m just overwhelmed right now. I’m going to get myself together and thank everyone properly when I get off stage. […] I’m so happy right now, I could cry. Thank you.”

During a recent Late Night With Seth Meyers interview, Questlove noted the success of the movie has exceeded his expectations, saying, “At least I know with music what a goal is, but with the movie world, I just had no clue. I just wanted to make something really cool and hopefully they were gonna show it in a few classrooms, and then maybe discover it 20 years from now, like, ‘Yo, you know Questlove did this thing?’”

Watch Questlove’s acceptance speech above and find the full list of this year’s Academy Award winners here.

Questlove’s ‘Summer Of Soul’ Is Nominated For A 2022 Oscar Award And He’s Pretty Pumped About It

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Despite only being a first-time director, The Roots’ drummer Questlove has already entered rarified air as one of the nominees for the 2022 Academy Awards. he’s nominated for Best Original Documentary for his debut film, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), which captured the subversive energy and vibrant performances of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. The documentary is also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music Film, an impressive achievement for the veteran musician.

Questlove himself seemed pretty pumped about the new nomination online — to the point of incoherence. He tweeted out an unintelligible string of characters before he was able to compose himself enough to write a tweet genuinely expressing his excitement. “Oscar Nominated Film Director Questlove……I just need to see this in print,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, over on Instagram, he needed the help of some archival video to tell his followers “THIS IS HOW I FEEL.” “Man I’m so happy about this,” he wrote in the caption. “Thank you to every last soul that assisted in this journey from 1969 to tomorrow!!!”

Should Questlove win the category (out of a field that also includes Ascension, Attica, Flee, and Writing With Fire, he’ll be halfway to an EGOT — and with Black Thought’s musical Black No More still in the works, there’s time for Quest to attach his name and position himself for a potential Tony as well. Then all he’ll need is for John Oliver to take a season off and that EGOT’s in the bag.

The Questlove-Curated Soundtrack From ‘Summer Of Soul’ Is Coming To Streaming And Vinyl

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The only thing missing from Questlove‘s moving historical documentary Summer Of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (aside from the hours of footage that had to be cut to make a watchable documentary in the first place) was a soundtrack that could be played outside of watching the film itself. After all, the doc covered the weeks-long 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured free live performances from Black music legends like Gladys Knight & The Pips, Nina Simone, and Sly & The Family Stone.

That changes today, with the announcement of the official soundtrack coming soon to streaming and physical media, including CDs and vinyl. Like the film, Questlove curated the once-lost audio documentation from several of the original performances, compiling 17 tracks including Sly & The Family Stone’s “Sing A Simple Song,” B.B. King’s “Why I Sing The Blues,” and The Operation Breadbasket Orchestra & Choir’s rendition of “Precious Lord Take My Hand” with Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples.

In the press release announcing the soundtrack, Questlove said, “It goes beyond saying that you can’t have a monster music journey on film without an equally awesome soundtrack. The people demanded ‘more!’. So for the people, we bring you musical manna that hopefully won’t be the last serving. These performances are lightning in a bottle. Pure artistry! Enjoy.”

The Summer Of Soul soundtrack is due on streaming and CD 1/28/2022 via Legacy Recordings. Pre-save it here. The vinyl release will be announced at a later date.

The Harlem Cultural Festival Is Celebrated In A Teaser For Questlove’s ‘Summer Of Soul’ Documentary

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Back towards the end of 2019, it was revealed that Questlove was working on what is now titled Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), a documentary about The Harlem Cultural Festival, a six-week festival that took place right around the same time as Woodstock. Now, the first teaser for the film, which is set to premiere in theaters and on Hulu on July 2, has been shared.

An official statement describes the film:

“In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary — part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten — until now. Summer Of Soul 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. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Ray Baretto, Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach, and more.”

Back when the project was announced, Questlove said in a statement, “I am truly excited to help bring the passion, the story and the music of the Harlem Cultural Festival to audiences around the world. The performances are extraordinary. I was stunned when I saw the lost footage for the first time. It’s incredible to look at 50 years of history that’s never been told, and I’m eager and humbled to tell that story.”

He also told Variety in an interview earlier this year, “”Woodstock happens in two weeks after this and it defines a lifestyle, it defines a generation. Woodstock, the city name alone, just defines a whole movement. And I kept wondering what would have went down if this were allowed to happen for [Black people]. If this were allowed to unfurl and and spread across the world as Woodstock did, how much of a difference could that have made in my life as a music lover and as a music collector? So, then I just felt this the sense of purpose that I have to tell the story.”

Watch the Summer Of Soul teaser above.