Festival (1967)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Murray Lerner

Writer:

Murray Lerner (writer)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Tagline:

Newport is an oasis of beautiful music - and beautiful people ... who take the high road to "Festival!"

Plot:

Black and white footage of performances, interviews, and conversations at the Newport Folk Festival...

Plot Keywords:

Bluegrass | Performance | Interview | Blues | Philosophy

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Joan Baez	...	Herself
Horton Barker	...	Himself
Fiddler Beers	...	Himself
Theodore Bikel	...	Himself
Mike Bloomfield	...	Himself
Paul Butterfield	...	Himself
Johnny Cash	...	Himself
Judy Collins	...	Herself
Cousin Emmy	...	Herself
Donovan	...	Himself
Bob Dylan	...	Himself
Mimi Farina	...	Herself
Richard Farina	...	Himself (as Dick Farina)
Ronnie Gilbert	...	Herself
Mrs. Ollie Gilbert	...	Herself

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Newport, Rhode Island, USA

Company:

Patchke Productions

Movie Connections:

Featured in No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)

A marvelous time-capsule of the mid-60s roots music scene.

Festival is sadly among the missing documents of an era in popular music that continues to fascinate. After a brief theatrical run in 1967, the film continued to show up at repertory theaters through the next decade. But with the advent of home video, problems with wider distribution arose, due to clearing music performance rights. Thus, any opportunity to see this film should be taken. Director Murray Lerner hung out at four Newport Folk Festivals (1963-1966), recording performances, interviews, and crowd shots. Editing all of this footage into less than 100 minutes of film inevitably meant compromises; there are no complete performances, the interviews are brief. But the feeling for an era remains, and the most electric moment (literally) involves that famous (or infamous) 1965 performance by Bob Dylan, when he plugged in his guitar and played with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Among the highlights are several involving veteran bluesmen like Son House breaking through to a mostly white, college-age crowd.