Newport & the Great Folk Dream

In 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival and changed music forever … or so the story goes, as this glorious, immersive documentary explores.

There are many interpretations of the heckling at the Newport Folk Festival that accompanied Bob Dylan plugging in for the first time, but one thing remains clear: it represented a key turning point in the history of American music. In Newport & the Great Folk Dream, that moment is treated as a starting point for investigating the broader phenomenon of Newport, and how the countercultural event became one of the most iconic of its kind.

Mining the archives of previously unseen footage shot over four successive years by Murray Lerner for his 1967 Oscar-nominated documentary Festival, director Robert Gordon (Best of Enemies, MIFF 2015) has assembled an ecstatic account of the Newport Folk Festival in its formative years. Featuring illuminating performances from Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Taj Mahal, Buffy Sainte-Marie, The Staple Singers and many others, alongside contemporary interviews with those who were there, it’s a historical document par excellence. Placing this precious footage within its social and political context, Newport & the Great Folk Dream is an extraordinarily raw and energising music documentary.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival