My favourite part of Summer of Soul is when Mavis Staples sings with Mahalia Jackson and sometimes Mahalia holds the microphone close to her voice and sometimes not, sometimes Mavis is singing but it isn’t audible. One wonders does Mahalia not want Mavis sharing this spotlight or is she in a trance from being in a zone she obviously owns and which doesn’t necessarily mean she can demonstrate ordinary consciousness.

A couple moments later, in fact she gives the mic to Mavis to carry & keep on improvising. Next thing you know we hear present day Mavis’s voice-over as she is viewing the same footage and explains that moment was the biggest deal in her life, ever. Mahalia Jackson gave her the mic, wanted her heard, was declaring they are peers. You can get teary easy watching it, even before present day Mavis supplies her thoughts.