Paraphrasing a subject: "Participating in civil rights activism was rough on any family. Now imagine being a genius woman when that wasn't something society was ready to recognize... Nina Simone wasn't at odd with the times. The times were at odds with her."

Heartbreaking and beautiful. It's not going to win any awards for form, but the archival content and research more than make up for its plainness. I would have watched this as a multi-part miniseries that expanded on each part of Nina Simone's career, but as a feature length overview that appropriately focuses the majority of its time on her shift from pop-star to radical, it's still pretty great. Why isn't this in theaters?

(Just kidding, I can think of a few reasons why... America, goddamn)

If you're not familiar with Miss Nina Simone, you need to watch this documentary. Certain documentaries come out and are important. This is one of those documentaries. One of the biggest popular culture figures in the civil rights movement, Miss Simone played a crucial part in motivating young, gifted, and black students across America. She was extremely controversial, especially when her focus shifted towards a more a violent message. But she was determined to do whatever it took. If that meant losing her spotlight, so be it.

An extremely gifted musician and an even more interesting figure in American culture. The documentary does a great job of piecing together tons of old footage of Nina Simone and other public figures at the time. A great job of weaving in some made footage with the found footage. It accomplishes exactly what it wants to and I hope a lot of people get to see it.

far too staid for such a revolutionary woman, but Nina shines through via brilliant archival footage.

it's 2015. Jay Leno is off tv, we have flying meth drones, an orange man is speaker of the house. time to retire talking heads in docs.

We've reached a point as a society where subtitles are needed to read cursive handwriting

Don't think I've ever wanted so much to sit in a smokey bar to hear someone play beautiful music and feel guilty about it

ending pisces season with this, belated happy birthday nina simone!!!

Don Shirley's got nothing on Nina Simone. Eat it, Green Book.

The way she first comes out on stage? Goddamn what a stage presence. They don't make 'em like that anymore. She was truly one of the greats.

I never realized the significance of Stars in Montreux being such a comeback song. I wish the film included the full take, since I've listened to the audio version do many times. Hearing it with visuals for the first time and in a new context made me tear up.

I don't ever like the "disturbed artists make better music" narrative, but this didn't push too hard on that theme. In fact, it pretty much just stated the facts plainly. As much as I love Nina, the production for this was good, but not amazing. I don't know what more I could have wanted (other than more Montreux!!)

nina deserves an even more spectacular documentary than this, but it is still nice to see her being honored and remembered

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

A beautiful portrait of one of the greatest american artists, in all of her nuances.... good and bad

5 étoiles pour Nina.

Nina Simone was astounding.

"I'll tell you what freedom is to me, no fear...I mean, really, no fear!" - Nina Simone