Summer of Soul: The Angel of History Comes to Harlem
As an archive-based film, Summer of Soul is in many ways a perfect illustration of the significance of Walter Benjamin’s claim that “In order for a part of the past to be touched by the present instant [Aktualität] there must be no continuity between them.” Summer of Soul is subtitled “When the revolution could not be televised,” a line borrowed from Gil Scott-Heron, for whom it was a critique of the banality of white TV. The irony is, of course, that the Harlem Cultural Festival was televised in 1969, although its broadcast was limited to two one-hour segments at reputedly obscure hours with little to no publicity.