Festival! (Newport Folk Festival) (DVD)

Murray Lerner's film is a cinematic synthesis of four Newport Folk Festivals in which the art of folk music is pictured in transition during it's 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. 44 tracks in all. 97-minute, The Newport Folk Festival in 1963, '64, and '65. Filmed over the course of three festivals at Newport (1963-1965), It also features the infamous 1965 set by Bob Dylan at Newport. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.