Festival! - The Newport Folk Festival
by Murray Lerner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Fiddler Beers, Horton Barker, Joan Baez, Mike Bloomfield, Theodore BikelDirector: Murray Lerner
Brand: RED Distribution
Cinematographer: Francis Grumman
Cinematographer: George Pickow
Cinematographer: Murray Lerner
Producer: Murray Lerner
Writer: Murray Lerner
Cinematographer: Stanley Meredith
Editor: Howard Alk
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-10-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Eagle Rock Entertainment
Product features:
- Bob Dylan
- Joan Baez
- Pete Seeger
- Johnny Cash
- Peter, Paul & Mary
Movie Reviews of Festival! - The Newport Folk Festival
Movie Review: Pre-Woodstock festival in beautiful b&w
Summary: 5 Stars
Before Woodstock, before Isle of Wight, before Monterey Pop, music fans of the early 60s went to Rhode Island for the Newport Folk Festival, a series of annual summer concerts featuring the best of the folk music scene. Murray Lerner and various other movie crews were on hand from 1963-1966 to film the musicians, the audience, and the interactions of the two groups. FESTIVAL captures this interaction well over the course of the film. However, one significant interaction exists throughout which seems to be the true focus of FESTIVAL: the old folkies versus the young upstarts. Whereas the original festival concept was to showcase the traditional folk acts (such as Pete Seeger, Peter Paul & Mary, square dancers and various gospel singers), a younger audience began to emerge onto the folk scene, cultivating their own tastes and styles, and moving towards a more rebellious attitude. Their heroes were more outspoken personalities such as Johnny Cash, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. Still, this is the pre-hippie era, so even the most rebellious kids tend to keep their hair short and their dress conservative. But things were about to change. FESTIVAL succeeds in capturing this era of transition, and many of the interviews with the performers and the young fans are priceless. There is one group of college age kids who comment on Bob Dylan's performance. I can't believe how much they resemble kids of today, from their pompous attitude, their fondness for longish hair, cigarettes, beer, and having a party. Obviously many of today's attitudes were already taking shape back in the early 60s.
As a concert film, FESTIVAL succeeds as well. Although some acts are indeed edited, this problem isn't annoying as others have stated. The film shows quite many performers, but all the music is real good. Near the end, you see Newport's most famous moment of controversy... Bob Dylan's electric performance of "Maggie's Farm." Bob Dylan is the superstar of Newport. All the musicians played his tunes (mostly in acoustic format) and the fans scrutinized everything he did. But Dylan's biggest function in this movie is this: he had brought the young music fans rock music into the folk scene (and making it a legitimate art form). The traditional folkies booed Dylan, but a new generation embraced him, and they were about to break away and organize festivals of their own, ones which were louder and more controversial. Monterey Pop took place in 1967 and the big one.... Woodstock was lurking at the end of the decade.
FESTIVAL is a great document of American music in transition, and a fun film for music lovers of various tastes. The footage is in black and white but it's a film of many cool colors and styles.
Summary of Festival! - The Newport Folk Festival
Murray Lerner's film "Festival" is a cinematic synthesis of four Newport Folk Festivals in which the art of folk music is pictured in transition during its most crucial years. The range is from Bob Dylan performing "Tambourine Man" and Joan Baez doing "Farewell Angelina," to country artists like Johnny Cash playing "I Walk the Line" to the Georgia Sea Island Singers. The range is also from the high-priced professionals like Peter, Paul, and Mary to the authentic folk dignity of living legends such as Son House and Mississippi John Hurt. Joan Baez, Donovan and Judy Collins are all on view, as are Pete Seeger, the Ed Young Fife and Drum Corps and numerous others that give a feeling of community with the whole American present, and continuity with the American past. Indeed, the long-haired Newport audiences pictured sleeping on beaches and on the grounds, in sports cars and battered station wagons, plunking banjoes and guitars, swapping tunes between formal concerts, and talking about folk music, seem not a rupture with the American past, but an expression of carrying forward an American idealism and social concern.Track Listing:
1) Hannah - Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band w/ Mel Lyman
2) If I Had A Hammer - Peter, Paul and Mary
3) Rocky Road - Sacred Harp Singers
4) Traditional Spiritual - Georgia Sea Island Singers
5) Clog Dance - Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers
6) Black Mountain Rag - Tex Logan and The Lilly Brothers
7) Green Corn - Pete Seeger
8) Codeine...And It's Real - Buffy Sainte-Marie
9) Deep Blue Sea - Pete Seeger
10) Lordy, Lordy - Odetta
11) Go Tell Aunt Rhody - Joan Baez and Peter Yarrow
12) Mary Hamilton - Joan Baez
13) All I Really Want To Do - Bob Dylan
14) All Our Trials - Joan Baez
15) Blowin' In The Wind - Peter, Paul and Mary
16) And The War Drags On - Donovan
17) Turn, Turn, Turn - Judy Collins
18) Viet Nam, Your Latest Game - Donovan
19) Just Can't Keep From Cryin' - Odetta
20) Times They Are A Changin' - Peter, Paul and Mary
21) Highway 61 - Fred McDowell
22) Keys To The Highway - Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry
23) Candy Man - Mississippi John Hurt
24) Maggie's Farm - Bob Dylan
25) Instrumental - Ed Young Fife & Drum Corps
26) Feed Me, Jesus - Swan Silvertones
27) Help Me, Jesus - Staple Singers
28) Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me `Round - Freedom Singers
29) Go Tell It On The Mountain - Fannie Lou Hamer
30) We Shall Overcome - Freedom Group Finale w/ Odetta
31) I Was Born In Chicago - Paul Butterfield Blues Band
32) Son House Blues - Son House
33) You Hear My Howling Early In The Morning - Howling Wolf
34) Pack Up Your Sorrows - Mimi and Dick Farina
35) Flute Instrumental - Spokes Mashiyane
36) Cheek Slapping - Cousin Emmy
37) Russian Song - Theodore Bikel
38) Anathea - Judy Collins
39) I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash
40) Ruby - Osborne Bros.
41) Farewell Angelina - Joan Baez
42) Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan
43) Rising Of The Moon - Peter, Paul and Mary
44) Down By The Riverside - Group Finale w/ Baez, Odetta and Seeger
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