kijii If you have Netflix streaming, you really should see this fascinating documentary!! Though I lived through the 50s and 60s, I don't remember Nina Simone (born in 1933 in North Carolina as Eunice Waymon) except in a very obscure way: an expatriated American icon of some sort. Yet, she had unbelievable talents that broke all boundaries of instrumental and vocal performing. From childhood, she was trained in classical piano and was ready to become the first Black Woman to perform in Carnegie Hall. However, due to her life circumstances, she became something else. She became someone with totally unique abilities—abilities and feelings that transcended all types of music, poetry, and social activism. Yet, she had a very tragic life that is a story in itself.I have never seen a documentary that so perfectly captures a life of a very complicated person as well as this one did!! What's equally amazing is that there were so many video clips available (from so many different venues and over so much time) to use in putting this story personal story together. How does one talk about Nina Simone and her life? How do you classify her music or performing skills? Is it classical piano—gospel—jazz—soul— folk—social activism —poetry—or what? She wrote many songs that only she could written: she was the first black American to really express, in music, what so many people could only express in words (Malcolm X, James Baldwin), plays (Lorraine Hansberry) or poetry (Langston Hughes). And--as a black WOMAN--she expressed the anger that black men could not hope to at the time as in "Mississippi Goddam."Her songs are also about freedom as well as her search to find her black identity as in "To be Young Gifted and Black" (inspired by Loranie Hansberry's play).I'm convinced that the only way—or at least the best way--to BEGIN to understand Nina Simone is through this great documentary that follows her life from her childhood to death in the south of France!! Both her daughter and her former husband are narrators of the documentary, which gives us even more insight into her struggles.

themadmovieman This is a very powerful and passionate documentary that tells the life of the legendary Nina Simone in great fashion. With a brilliant collection of stock footage that not only looks at Simone as a music icon but also a hugely significant civil rights activist and a person, this is a fascinating and engrossing documentary.Going into this, I knew next to nothing about Nina Simone. The Civil Rights Movement has always been fascinating to me, but the musicians involved, I didn't think much.However, this documentary makes all of that even more enthralling to learn about, and extremely accessible to non-experts. If you haven't ever heard of Nina Simone, you can easily go into this film and be engrossed by the entire story.In terms of the way that this film tells the whole story, it's very impressive. Structurally, it's a bit of a by-the-books documentary, but if you get deeper into it, you discover that it's a very passionate and fitting tribute to Simone's life.The first period of the film details her rise to fame in the jazz world in the 1950s from her lowly beginnings in a southern town, and shows you all sorts of fascinating clips from her childhood that show what a struggle her journey was, and from her earliest performances that gave birth to a genius in the music industry.With interviews from both herself and her closest friends and family, you also get an extremely personal look into this story. For all of the hype surrounding her musical talent, there's still a very touching smaller story about Simone as a person. Ultimately, it's a sad story that she suffered so much from personal demons and domestic issues, however this film really allows you to empathise with a person that was, at her time, so aggressive and loud.That's where the story about her as a civil rights activist comes in. This film thinks very highly of her role in the entire movement, rightly placing her amidst historical titans like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. It talks about how she brought attention to the movement to a different crowd, and in a different way, and despite her disagreements with King's non-violent protest tactics and her support for a more aggressive approach, her importance cannot be understated.Overall, this is a great documentary, that not only gives you an accessible historical insight into the life of this incredible personality, but one that will both entertain and fully engross you.www.themadmovieman.com

xaymacagal I woke up reflecting on "What Happened, Miss Simone?" and am now feeling like I spent last night sitting through some home movies at a family reunion.Am thinking that a documentary about the great Nina Simone should have left me feeling like I had thrown back five vodka martinis (all imagined folks...I don't roll like that)....Am thinking about the times...her deep isolation as a child prodigy...her musical mentors...her contemporaries (Malcolm, Stokely, Belafonte, Farrakhan -- all four Caribbean men BTW, Jimmy B, the Panthers, Mahalia, Maya, et. al. ...her art in service of the movement...her ambivalence about European classical music vs. pop/jazz/movement music...her moodiness at performances that rivaled Miles' darkness...her many musical collaborators...her unbound sexual appetite...her mental illness...her exile to West Africa then Europe...her money troubles...her abandonment of her child...her husband's financial, emotional, and physical violence...her white savior...race...colorism....I mean, this is the woman who did this: >>>One time in New York I went to see an off-Broadway play with Bill Dukes and Brock Peters - two fine black actors - in the cast. I thought the roles they played were insulting to black people, and I got up there on stage in the middle of the show and told them so. I stopped the play in its tracks to ask them why they were doing trash like that. One of them said something about needing the money, but that was no excuse. They apologized, and took me home in a cab. I was half-crazy with anger that night, a woman on fire, and that was how I felt most of the time as I watched my people struggling for their rightful place in America. <<< This is an extract from her autobiography, I Put a Spell On You http://www.goodreads.com/bo…/show/88328.I_Put_a_Spell_on_YouThis doc could have been toothier if the filmmakers had focused on the woman and her extraordinary life...and perhaps not given as much space to her ex-husband and her daughter....

bland-kevin67 The telling of Nina's story through the words of her family and old footage from her as well is truly moving and unsettling. I felt the closing in of the events that lead to her fame, fall, and fatality. It seems as if everyone was affected by the power of her illness which was fueled by the times. I am not sure if one accelerated the other. Growing up in the south and traveling all over the world does something to you. You become enlightened and the junk that was going on in the US over race was ludicrous and enraging. I am not sure if I could deal with that back then either. Nina was truly ahead of her time but got stuck in time due to the violence of those times. I love the way she expressed her disdain for the instrument of her fame and I also loved the attitude she had about her own voice. I grew up listening to this strange voice and at first I could not figure out if it was a man or woman until further into the album. This documentary is a timely tribute to the singer and it also allowed us to see what she was going through and why she fell off the face of the earth for a while. I look at her from a different pair of eyes now and I am grateful to know her story.