Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38256 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-10-18
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Compilation, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Live, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 95 minutes

Amazon.com
It's the big names--like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Johnny Cash, and Peter, Paul & Mary--who command most of the attention, but they aren't what director-producer Murray Lerner's Festival!, a 97-minute, black & white chronicle of the Newport (Rhode Island) Folk Festival in 1963, '64, and '65, is really all about. In fact, while those artists were the face of that era's folk boom, their music hasn't aged especially well; with the exception of Dylan (who appears both solo and with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, who helped him break the sound barrier in '65) and Cash, their songs were so earnest, their delivery so pristine and humorless, that these days they evoke squirm-inducing parallels to Christopher Guest's folk satire A Mighty Wind. It's the clips of, say, the Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers, with their virtuoso square dance moves; the high, lonesome bluegrass of the Osborne Brothers; the deep gospel of the Georgia Sea Island Singers and the Staple Singers; the down home Delta blues (or, as he spells it, "b-l-u-s-e") of Son House, or even the astonishing Cousin Emmy, who plays "Turkey in the Straw" on her cheeks, that remind us that "folk" encompasses a great deal more than protest singers strumming acoustic guitars. As for Lerner's stated intention to "make a film about something bigger than music… a film that was an expression of this new culture," sure, whatever; there are plenty of interviews with artists and concert-goers alike to back that up. But Festival! revolves around the music, and therein lies its major flaw: namely, the lack of complete performances of any songs, which reduces the film's status from essential to merely interesting. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Well it was cheap
Disappointed is an understatement. In actuality the film is pretty good or better. The disappointment is not one full song shown and some, Spider John are only 10 seconds. I know that not every second was filmed but here's an idea that would have satisfied Lerner's artistic desires and many peoples natual desire to see moreof the music. Double the price, on disc one show the film and on disc 2 have full versions of 2 hours of Artists. And I mean everyone from the 3 song electric Dylan to some Joan and all the biggies to the more obscure examples of our culture like the cloggers shouters etc. 2 things would then happen, I could watch the film without the constant feeling of coitus interuptus and see some killer acts from my very young life and our culture as a people. As it is the price is right if you want it but I doubt I'll watch it a 2nd time

Pre-Woodstock festival in beautiful b&w
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.

Bittersweet
Of course I am delighted to finally see this film I have only heard about and drooled over wanting to view it for several years, and I have no doubt that Scorcese's Dylan documentary had something to do with this film's much-overdue release, but like many reviewers have already said, this film can be a bit of a tease because most of the performances are painfully short.

I hate to complain, but I am anyway. On one hand, it is beautifully shot, with great audience segments and interviews, and for that it deserves credit, but what angers me is that clips of this movie were shown on the Scorcese documentary that do not appear on this DVD! Very historical clips, not just cutting-room floor stuff. That means there is more material that is available but (for some unknown reason) not included in this, the official DVD release, including the famous moment when Peter Yarrow is in a panic during Bob Dylan's electric set. Such a huge historical moment, beautifully captured on Scorcese's documentary, but excluded on this DVD. Because of the Scorcese documentary, the public knows more footage is out there. To whomever produced this DVD, please find a way to compile the extra footage on a bonus disc and reissue it as a two-disc set.

It's hard to complain, because I enjoy the movie. It just hurts, especially in these days of bonus footage and lost outtakes, that we (the consumer), for whatever reason, are not allowed to see as much as possible, which easily could have been included on an extra disc and sold at a higher price. Everything else about this movie is great. They cover many musiciains and festival-goers, and try to give their perfomances equal time with the small amount of time the producers allowed for themselves. That part is great, it just hurts to see only 10 seconds of Donovan's only appearance in the film, or only a few seconds of Dylan. Maybe I am spoiled by other music documentaries that show entire songs? I don't know, but I would still recommend buying this historical film