More Black Movies

Over the weekend, I saw the Summer of Soul concert film. It was a good mix of concert footage and historical background about the political and social issues of the time. The Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969 preceded Woodstock and lasted for 6 weekends in the summer. It was free, too, so lots of people could come enjoy many genres of music performed by major stars like B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, etc. The Black audience showed the cultural transition from Motown suits to dashikis, as the growing culture of Black is Beautiful emerged.Watching the film made me wish they could release all 40 hours of footage, perhaps arranged by days, on DVD or streaming. The original filmmaker couldn't sell his footage for years, so I hope that now the footage is rediscovered, that he could finally sell all of it for those who want to buy.

I also watched Netflix's recent movie Concrete Cowboy, starring Idris Elba as an urban cowboy in Philadelphia. Lorraine Toussaint also plays a neighbor named Nessie. It's a fictional story, but it features the real-life Fletcher Street Riding Club, a historical group of Black riders and trainers who care for horses in Philly. They are a community of volunteers who mostly have other day jobs to support their horse passion. There used to be plenty of stables in the city, but development and gentrification have shut down most of them, causing overcrowding to the point that Idris's character Harp keeps a horse in his own house. Harp is estranged from his 15-year-old son Cole, who lives in Detroit. However, after Cole is expelled from school for fighting, his frustrated mother decides to make him stay with his father for the summer, and she drops him off in the middle of the night on the doorstep. Cole is resentful about being abandoned, but then he reunites with an old childhood friend named Smush, who is now a drug dealer. Harp tries to forbid the relationship, but Cole secretly still hangs out with Smush. At the same time, though, Cole begins to work at the stables and bonds with a horse named Boo. He also connects with other cowboys and cowgirls, hearing their stories and also envying them for getting Harp's fatherly attention. The tension in Cole's dual life eventually explodes, but he learns to embrace his new home and family. I enjoyed it, and some real life Fletcher Street riders star as fictionalized versions of themselves.