Festival

Fortunately, "Festival" is now available on DVD which I recently purchased. The performances (though incomplete), the interviews, and crowd shots make it a worthwhile 95 minutes of viewing. For me, it wasn't enough. I was yearning for more, more, and more. Here's why: There simply isn't much history available about the Newport Folk Festival and the folk music revival of the 60s except for excerpts here and there but never in complete document form. Many of the artists who appear in this film are long deceased, and with their departure, so is their body of work which in large part, is out of print and rare. The best known performers in the film (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul, and Mary) are still active to this day yet it's fascinating and at times, amusing, to see them frolicking in some (until now) rare footage. I recommend it as a companion to the recent Bob Dylan "No Direction Home" DVD set just released this past summer.

Director Murray Lerner makes this black and white documentary of the Folk Music at Newport from 1963 to 1966, entwining interviews with the audiences that highlight the importance of the folk music and performances of artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter,Paul and Mary, Donovan, Howlin' Wolf and Johnny Cash.

"Festival" is a testimony of magic moments of the 60's that will never happen again. Who could imagine in the present days an artist like Bob Dylan asking for a harmonica to the audience to play Mr.Tambourine Man; or Peter, Paul and Mary in trouble with the microphones; or Peter Yarrow changing the tune of his guitar while singing with Joan Baez; or the artists so close to the audience. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Festival"

If you're a rabid fan of early to mid 1960's Folk Music, this is the documentary you have been waiting to see. Director Murry Lerner (who also directed an inspired documentary about the Isle Of Wight Festival of 1970) has crafted a well filmed document of four years of the Newport Folk Festival, between 1963 to 1966,including footage of Bob Dylan the first time he plugged in his brand new Stratocaster and played Maggie's Farm for an unsuspecting (and disturbed)audience. The film also makes good use of other Folk icons of the era (Joan Baez,Paul Butterfield,Son House,etc.). This black & white documentary was screened as an "art film", back in the day, and pretty much was forgotten by the end of the 60's, due to the popularity of psychedelic rock (which itself lead to progressive rock,etc.). Worth a watch if you're a fan of Dylan & the rest of the folk 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.

Filmmaker Murray Lerner documents the Newport Folk Festival from 1963 to 1966. It's in black and white. In addition to the performers, he interviews some of the audiences. The performers include Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan. Joan Baez has a good size section which includes her interacting with fans. The most interesting is a small scene with Dylan performing with an electric guitar. There is cheering after his set. I'm not sure if that's the 1965 festival when he first returned to electric. All in all, it's a great time capsule of old performances and artists long gone. It is music history.