在大多数1969年的非裔美国人心中,, the Harlem Cultural Festival was an event that would leave an indelible mark on the legacy of New York City. 两个月, 比如妮娜·西蒙的歌, The 5th Dimension and Mavis Staples would pour out of Mount Morris Park in Haarlem and flood into surrounding cars, 街道和家庭. 然后就被遗忘了. For over 50 years the only surviving reels of film had slept in a nondescript filing cabinet before a team from Searchlight Pictures would rouse and revive the forgotten festival footage in the 2021 Oscar winning documentary, 灵魂之夏.
布莱恩·格林(Bryan Greene)加入了庞大的制作团队. 7月23日晚上，格林给了一个 灵魂之夏 viewing to a gymnasium filled with ecstatic 国立历史BTT365 (NHA) students. 电影一开始, there were no questions as to why the film would receive commendation after commendation, 不仅仅是在奥斯卡上, 还有奥斯卡奖和英国电影和电视艺术BTT365奖, 在其他众多提名中. Students were in awe all the way through the film’s two hour run-time thanks to its unique narrative format which informatively combines the festival’s biggest musical displays with exposition regarding the social and political contexts at the time. 考虑到格林是顾问制片人, I ended up in a discussing with him how reworking a more conventional documentary-style format could conceive a compelling film. The first thing I felt compelled to ask Greene was how he felt the film would impact society today. 毕竟, 尽管哈莱姆文化节几乎被遗忘了, 它无疑重塑了美国文化, 尤其是黑人文化. 例如, 灵魂之夏 highlighted how the festival created a culture of defiance after the nation was nearing the end of the tumultuous 60’s. 在这十年的前五年, most African Americans would have been looking optimistically towards the future as the 1964 Civil Rights Act took force, 停止种族歧视. 然而, this was only true on paper as decades of institutionalised racism would suddenly ricochet through the hearts of Black Americans nationwide when Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4th, 1968年，罗伯特·F. 不到两个月后的6月6日. The documentary therefore argued that the Harlem community countered these events through the power of song, 考虑到最令人回味的场景之一是妮娜·西蒙演唱的 你准备好了吗? which advocated for an African American community not afraid to demand justice after the events of the past few years. 今天在美国, 我们也在展望一个动荡的未来, 警察队伍中的种族主义仍在继续. 结果是, Greene stated that he would like to see his film have two main effects on the extremely volatile political climate today.
首先,“夏日之魂 就是教育人们。”. Whilst it may seem obvious to most of the country that we live in a system which in many ways is broken, Greene explains that a large proportion of the population “still remains oblivious to the dangers that lie ahead” if we do not amend the scars which this nation has already obtained. This is relevant to the Festival as it was designed to be a way to heal the historical wounds which had been allowed to fester in America for much longer than what was acceptable. This resonated with me because we see the seeds of division sewn constantly throughout the past, with no example being as poignant as with the scene of protests after the moon landing. I spoke to Greene about the curious decision to juxtapose the positive reactions outside Harlem, 主要来自白人公民和哈莱姆斯区的抗议活动. We both agreed that it was likely due to what the African American community felt was a misconstruing of funds away from the American people in need to fund a vanity project on the international stage. 自然, this reminded me of Bill Stout’s infamous warning that “what shall it avail an nation if we can place a man on the moon but cannot cure the sickness in our cities”
其次, Greene also explained that whilst the film’s impact was mostly down to educating people, 还有一种极具反思性的元素. He stated that this “reflective element is crucial because it allows us to see how far we’ve come”. Whilst admittedly our current society is far from perfect, Greene has a valid point. In the documentary we can certainly see the differences between America in 1969 and 2017 through the interviews with many of the festival’s attendees and performers nearly 50 years apart. 有一次采访特别重要, was with the band The 5th Dimension who spoke of how back then they were considered either “too white” or “too black” as people were less accepting of nuances. This compares quite starkly with today where we as a society attempt to perceive diversity and cultural breadths as positive influences. 虽然面试很精彩, 格林承认他们是最具挑战性的角色之一. This was because when the production team at Searchlight Pictures first started working on 灵魂之夏，他们“不知道哪些人亲自参加了活动”。. 因此，格林将在寻找在那里的人的过程中发挥关键作用. One of the most interesting ways he searched for Festival goers was “through the power of the internet”. Greene recalled that he spent much of his time contacting people mainly through 脸谱网 and Youtube, both of which he referred to as his “Rosetta Stones” as they were how he found out about the Festival in the first place. 这表明互联网, once derided by organisations as “being a fad” has quickly become one of the easiest and most practical ways to unearth lost history. 事实上，格林对此开玩笑说 灵魂之夏 was only “the tip of the iceberg” and that his team will be working on much more that is yet to come. .