Nina Simone is a name many people will recognize. The singer had hits with songs like “My Baby Just Cares for Me,” “Feeling Good” and “Is not Got No, I Got Life”. They are songs that I know, but I knew nothing of the artist behind them. This Netflix documentary shows what kind of life Nina Simone had, which is a lot darker than you’d expect.
Nina Simone grew up in a time when racial segregation still existed. As a young girl she got a lot of piano lessons and she was so good that she would be able turn it into her career. Still, she was rejected to a major music school because of her skin color. She could lose herself in the music and kept going at it, which would eventually lead to success, but several events in her life made her a person with lots of inner demons. She also didn´t always have the right people around. Her husband was violent and after a while she could no longer deal with it. She also made choices which might be right for the things she stood for, but those choices meant great blows to her career. She made strong statements and made music which was not played on the radio because of the message. She decided to leave America to live in Africa and suffered from severe psychological problems. Toward the end of her life she recovered some of her glory, but this film shows that she has had a hard life.
This story was very well put together by director Liz Garbus, who in addition to archival footage and various performances also interviewed Simone´s daughter and friends. This documentary manages to these well-known songs a background story and a face, making the impact of them bigger when you hear them again.
I just caught up with this film last week, spent the following day listening to a lot of her music as well. I had not realized that she had such strong political leanings, especially in a time when it was tough for women like her to speak up. Really solid and inspiring documentary.
Yeah, I felt like that as well…really opened my eyes to a personal story I didn’t know anything about.