What Happened, Miss Simone?

(2015)

★ 7.4 IMDb · 396 votes

Genres: Music, Documentary

Year: 2015

Runtime: 101 мин

Country: United States of America

Director: Лиз Гарбус

Cast: Nina Simone, Lisa Simone, Dick Gregory, Stanley Crouch, Elisabeth Henry-Macari, Ilyasah Shabazz

Plot

The film chronicles Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to iconic musician and passionate activist, told in her own words.

On stage Nina Simone was known for her utterly free, uninhibited musical expression, which enthralled audiences and attracted life-long fans. But amid the violent, haunting, and senseless day-to-day of the civil rights era in 1960s America, Simone struggled to reconcile her artistic identity and ambition with her devotion to a movement. Culled from hours of autobiographical tapes, this new film unveils the unmitigated ego of a brilliant artist and the absurdities of her time. At the height of her fame Simone walked away from her family, country, career and fans, to move to Liberia and give up performing. The story of her life leading up to that event poses the question, 'how does royalty stomp around in the mud and still walk with grace?'