School-Time Screening – “What Happened, Miss Simone?”
Feb 10, 2016 at 10:30am, 11:00am
Peter Jay Sharp Building
BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Avenue
(718) 636 4100
Brooklyn
30 Lafayette Avenue
(718) 636 4100
Brooklyn
Directed by Liz Garbus
Nina Simone’s life and music melded the personal and the political in urgent, powerful, and often painful ways. From her songs about skin color and racialized violence to her associations with prominent Black Panther revolutionaries, she attended beautifully to the struggles and triumphs of black people around the world. In this illuminating biopic, students learn more about Simone’s music—and the political context in which it was grounded.
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I wish the other, uplifting documentary, “THE AMAZING NINA SIMONE” by Jeff L. Lieberman, got nearly as much play as the sad “What Happened, Miss Simone.” The Amazing Nina Simone” was put together with her brother and shared so much more information, pictures, and interviews of her rise as a child prodigy and her first marriage (which was not to the abusive husband in “What Happened, Miss Simone”). It also gave a more detailed account of her final years -AFTER living in sad hovels, her final home was a french villa where she was catered to by a dubious assistant. “The Amazing…” like it’s title, emphasizes Nina’s amazing talents and triumphs against great odds. Whereas “What Happened…” neglects so much of the beauty and grace in her life, but speaks of some in order to highlight her loss.