According to the remarkable documentary “What Happened, Miss Simone?” we have Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music to thank for jazz vocalist and songwriter Nina Simone’s blazing career. Trained from early childhood as a classical pianist, the then Eunice Waymon of Tryon, N.C., was in New York with a one-year scholarship to Juilliard when, in 1951, she applied for admission to Philadelphia’s storied tuition-free conservatory. She was rejected.
Liz Garbus’ new film, released last month by Netflix, more than implies that Simone was turned down not because her audition wasn’t up to snuff, but because she was black. A 2010 biography disputes this assertion, but in any event, the musician believed it to be true, fueling her anger over the racism she grew up with. (Shortly before her death in 2003, Curtis awarded Simone an honorary degree — an acknowledgment of past wrongdoing, or an honor accorded a great talent?)
To support herself, she headed to Atlantic City, landing a gig at the Midtown Bar &Grill on Pacific Avenue, under the name “Nina Simone.” At first, she just played instrumentals, but the owner told her that if she wanted to keep her $90-a-week job, she needed to sing. The rest is history — a history very much tied to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
“What Happened, Miss Simone?” is just one of a number of amazingly strong documentaries available right now on home screens and iPhone screens (if you must). When a swarm of top-quality nonfiction films tumble out one after the other, as they currently are, there’s the inevitable journalistic reflex to hail this as a new golden age of docs. I won’t go that far, but it is a doc moment, to be sure.
Not quite on the same tier as Garbus’ revelatory Simone portrait, another Netflix release, “Tig,” about standup comedian Tig Notaro, is nonetheless riveting. Directed by Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York, and deploying a lot — a lot — of iPhone video shot by Notaro and friends and family, “Tig” chronicles the life-changing events that the L.A.-based deadpan comic faced in 2012. After just recovering from a horrific intestinal-bacteria malady, Notaro was diagnosed with breast cancer.
At one of her regular comedy venues, Notaro came on stage and did an entire set about her cancer. Intensely personal, painful, and — yes — funny, the act, or tweets documenting her act, went viral. Louis CK hailed Notaro’s courage and comedy genius and went on to release an audio recording of the show on his label, Pig Newton. The album became a huge seller and won Notaro a Grammy nomination.
In “Point and Shoot,” currently streaming on Netflix and slated to air next month on PBS’ documentary series “POV,” Marshall Curry trains his camera on Matthew VanDyke, a sheltered Baltimorean, who decides to go on a “crash course in manhood,” riding a motorcycle across Africa and the Middle East and winding up fighting alongside rebel forces in the Libyan revolt.
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