CAIRO – 2 November 2017: The biographic Netflix documentary drama “What Happened, Miss Simone?” (2015) will be screening at the NVIC - Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo on Sunday, November 5.
Compiled by filmmaker Liz Garbus, this documentary uses hours of autobiographic tapes, diary entries, never before heard recordings and her own music to detail the personal life of Nina Simone. Simone was an African-American singer who was also at the forefront of the 1960s Civil Rights movement; struggling to maintain her artistic identity in the face of chaotic racial and social upheaval.
Nina Simone was born as Eunice Kathleen Waymon in 1933, North Carolina. She started her career by performing at night clubs, and combined her passion for jazz, blues and folk music with soothingly haunting vocals to become a smash hit, eventually joining up with the rising Civil Rights movements of the 60s to become one of its leading voices.
An outspoken activist, Simone believed her art was a tool to enact political change, and she was dubbed the “High Priestess of Soul.” She died in France on April 21, 2003 at the age of 70.
Garbus’s documentary provides a more intimate look into this powerful woman’s life, detailing the steps she took to reach fame and her struggles with mental illness, sexual obsessions and her relationship with her abusive husband, along with the abuse she herself inflicted on her daughter, Lisa Simone.
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