
'Summer of Soul' and 'Dick Gregory' offer windows into the civil-rights era
CNN
A pair of documentaries showcase strong directing debuts by Black filmmakers for the Fourth of July weekend: "Summer of Soul" transforms long-lost video into an intoxicating and layered look back at the Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969; and "The One and Only Dick Gregory" celebrates the comedian who dropped the stand-up mic to take up the mantle of civil-rights activism.
In an impressive curatorial feat, musician Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson directed what's fully titled "Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)," which focuses on a musical program that had been lost to history: A six-week Harlem concert series that featured a dizzying array of acts and attracted roughly 50,000 patrons every week. The event, however, unfurled in the shadow of Woodstock, and the footage sat dormant for a half-century, making the raw performances alone enough to turn "Summer of Soul" -- which premieres in theaters as well as on Hulu -- into what feels like a genuine event.
The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.

Judge restricts federal response to Minnesota protests amid outrage over immigration agents’ tactics
Immigration agents carrying out a sweeping operation in Minnesota can’t deploy certain crowd-control measures against peaceful protesters or arrest them, a federal judge ruled Friday. The order follows widespread outrage over a fatal shooting, reports of US citizens getting detained and Minnesotans getting asked for documents for no clear reason.

The smell of wet grass from the recent atmospheric river rains, mud and gasoline wafts through the warm Southern California air as Alec Derpetrossian works the chainsaw with a foreman, Randy Magaña, who helps him guide where to put the blade. Derpetrossian is still learning how to adequately use the large tool.










