Festival : folk music at Newport, 1963-1966
(Blu-ray)

With optional on-screen text identifying musicians and songs being performed.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1967.

Aspect ratio, 1.33:1.

Program notes by Amanda Petrusich and biographical notes on the performers by Mary Katherine Aldin (40 pages : portraits) inserted in container.

Special features: new, restored 2K digital transfer, approved by director Murray Lerner; new reconstruction and remasters of the soundtrack from the original concert and field recordings, approved by Lerner; Making 'Festival,' a new program featuring Lerner, associate editor Alan Heim, and assistant editor Gordon Quinn; When We Played Newport, a new program featuring archival interviews with Lerner, music festival produer George Wein, and musicians Joan Baez, John Cohen, Judy Collins, Phil Ochs, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pete Seeger, Peter Yarrow, and others; selection of unreleased performances by Clarence Ashley, Johnny Cash, Elizabeth Cotten, John Lee Hooker, Odetta, and Tom Paxton; optional captions identifying artists and song titles; plus a booklet featuring an essay by critic Amanda Petrusch and artist biographies by folk music expert Mary Katherine Aldin.

Photographed by Murray Lerner, Stanley Meredith, Francis Grumman, George Pickow; film editor , Howard Alk.

Joan Baez, Horton Barker, Theodore Bikel, Fiddler Beers, Mike Bloomfield, Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Cousin Emmy, Donovan, Bob Dylan, Mimi and Dick Fariña, the Freedom Singers, the Georgia Sea Island Singers, Ronnie Gilbert, Mrs. Ollie Gilbert, Fannie Lou Hamer, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Spider John Koerner, Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, Tex Logan and the Lilly Bros., Mel Lyman, Johannes "Spokes" Mashiyane, Fred McDowell, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Pappy Clayton McMichen, Moving Star Hall Singers, Odetta, the Osborne Brothers, Joe Patterson, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Almeda Riddle, Alexander "Eck" Robertson, the Sacred Harp Singers, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Mike Seeger, Pete Seeger, the Staple Singers, the Swan Silvertones, Mrs. General Watson, Reverend Wilkins, Howlin' Wolf, the Ed Young Fife & Drum Corps.

"Before Woodstock and Monterey Pop, there was Festival. From 1963 through 1966, Murray Lerner visited the annual Newport Folk Festival to document a thriving, idealistic musical movement as it reached its peak as a popular phenomenon. Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Cash, the Staple Singers, Pete Seeger, Son House, and Peter, Paul and Mary were just a few of the legends who shared the stage at Newport, treating audiences to a range of folk music that encompassed the genre's roots in blues, country, and gospel as well as its newer flirtations with rock and roll. Shooting in gorgeous black and white, Lerner juxtaposes performances with snapshot interviews with artists and their fans, weaving footage from four years of the festival into an intimate record of a pivotal time in music--and in American culture at large"--Container.

Rating: Not rated.

Blu-ray, region A; fullscreen (1.33:1 aspect ratio); LPCM 1.0 monaural.