First-Time Director Questlove Wins Best Documentary Oscar For 'Summer Of Soul (Or,... When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised).'
Hollywood was all about the excitement at this year's Oscars. It was a night of stars, face slaps, and first-time winners at last night's 94th Annual Academy Awards. One of whom was The Roots' own Questlove who won for his historically moving musical documentary Summer of Soul (Or,... When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).
The Oscar was presented by Chris Rock, who was just coming off of being slapped by Will Smith for joking about Jada Pinkett. But that didn't stop the outpouring of emotion Questlove expressed when he stepped on stage to receive the award. During his speech, Questlove made mention of his late father Lee Andrews while his mother Jacqui Andrews watched her son from the audience.
"I'm gonna get myself together and I'll thank everyone proper when I get off stage. I'm so happy right now I could cry."
What makes this win such an important one for the first-time director is the impact the subject matter had on the world of Soul music and its forgotten history. The film was edited together from lost footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a 6 week long musical festival that had all of the greats of the era, including B.B King, The 5th Dimension, Stevie Wonder, and Nina Simone just to name a few.
Thought to not be anything the populace at the time would want to watch, what with Woodstock going on at the same time, the footage sat in an old basement for decades until Questlove decided to edit the film during the pandemic. What he created was an impactful celebration of Black music and art that would have been lost to the world otherwise.
Going up against other heavy hitting documentaries such as the brilliant animated film Flee, which was a front runner for the win, Summer of Soul was amongst great company and got a deserving victory. Congratulations to Questlove and his effort to conserve this amazing moment in Black history.
