‘Mr. Soul!’, ‘Summer of Soul’ revisited

Starting Sunday, HBO Max begins streaming “Mr. Soul!” This 2018 documentary was seen earlier this year on PBS’s “Independent Lens.” It recalls a remarkable cultural showcase that ran on “educational” television in the years before the establishment of PBS.

After race riots convulsed American cities in the 1960s, a study conducted by the Kerner Commission concluded that America was headed “toward two societies, one Black, one white, separate and unequal.” The report specifically cited mass media’s lack of depiction of anyone of color as a contributing factor to social divisions.

In the wake of the study, New York’s educational station WNET launched “Soul!,” a showcase for Black voices. Produced and hosted by Ellis Haizlip, it would welcome a variety of artists. Many made their television debuts on “Soul!” including Kool & the Gang, Ashford & Simpson and Earth, Wind & Fire. Stevie Wonder was a regular guest and performer.

In addition to pop acts, “Soul!” would dedicate an entire episode to emerging Black ballet dancers and offer a stage for Black women poets. It would send poet Nikki Giovanni to Europe to interview author James Baldwin — for two hours.

Beyond offering TV visibility to unseen Black talent, it was unabashedly intellectual and consistently provocative.

The show was picked up for syndication by the fledgling Corporation for Public Broadcasting, but fell prey to pressures from the Nixon administration, which made no secret of its displeasure with a forum for Black voices, many of them radical. “Soul!” was canceled after running from 1968 to 1973.

› “Mr. Soul!” may be the perfect companion to the 2021 documentary “Summer of Soul,” streaming on Hulu. It recalls a series of concerts held in Harlem over several weekends in the summer of 1969, featuring performances by gospel acts including the Staples Singers and Mahalia Jackson, and pop and rock music from Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone and the 5th Dimension.

Held just weeks before the Woodstock festival attracted some 400,000 youth to upstate New York, the Harlem Cultural Festival was attended by more than 300,000 people, mostly Black. Woodstock became a cultural touchstone, inspiring a major motion picture and a best-selling gatefold album with three LPs. While local TV stations covered the event, the Harlem Festival was soon relegated to a cultural footnote. Much of the footage of the summer concert series was feared lost. This film, marking the directorial debut of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, assembles surviving reels of concert coverage and hopes to return the Harlem event to its place in musical and cultural history.

Not every music festival inspires joy, soul and Aquarian vibrations. HBO Max streams “Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage,” exploring the bad logistics, random scheduling, overpriced amenities and other factors that turned an attempt at a 30th anniversary party for Woodstock into a debacle rife with violence and arson.

› Proof that some people will go to great lengths to watch anything but the Olympic Games arrives on Saturday on the premium streamer Discovery+. “Puppy Bowl Presents: The Summer Dog Games” puts the accent on the frolic as five teams of dogs and their trainers compete for a $5,000 prize for their favorite charity.