Questlove’s Art in Summer of Soul: A Conversation with Filmmaker Kevin Willmott

This interview presents the perspective of Kevin Willmott, an Academy Award–winning filmmaker and screenwriter, on Summer of Soul. Willmott draws from his extensive knowledge as a veteran filmmaker as well as his unique vantage point as a Black man who grew up in a small town named Junction City in Kansas during the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power movement in the 1960s. Consequently, Willmott not only recollects personal experiences related to Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s film Summer of Soul, but he also discusses aspects of Questlove’s directorial approach that scholars might be inclined to gloss over while examining the film, and Willmott does so in his own idiomatic expressions.