Selections from the Lynnette Frazier Collection of the South Side Home Movie Project are featured alongside Summer Of Soul (…or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised), directed by Questlove (2021). By drawing thematic, visual and contextual connections between theatrical releases and intimate home movie recordings, the series highlights the ways in which the struggle for Black self-representation occurs at many scales, from blockbuster releases to intimate family records. “Screening Freedom” means elevating all of this work as worthy of exhibition, discussion and preservation.

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 largely forgotten–until now. Featuring concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more, SUMMER OF SOUL also stages emotional encounters between the unearthed material and artists and guests who attended the festival decades ago. All together, SUMMER OF SOUL demonstrates the power of Black music and self-representation in the midst of dramatic social change. [adapted from Searchlight Pictures]

Screening will be followed by catered discussion with Lynette Frazier in person. Free and open to all.

“Screening Freedom” is brought to you by the Digital Storytelling Initiative at the Logan Center for the Arts, in collaboration with the South Side Home Movie Project at Arts and Public Life and the Film Studies Center at the University of Chicago. Funding for this program was provided by the Center for the Study of Race Politics and Culture Reimagining the University Fund and the Office of the Provost Diversity & Inclusion 2023 Juneteenth Fund.