2026 Sarasota Film Festival
Newport and the Great Folk Dream
Screenings
- Sun, Apr 12, 4:00 PM EDT• New College of Florida/Sainer Pavilion
Before Coachella and Woodstock, there was the Newport Folk Festival. Powerful music leaps from the air and can change the actual world. At the Newport Folk Festivals in the early 1960s, the molecules were electric with rebellion and democracy, with anger and hope. Musicians drove that change — Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger but also banjo players from coal country, remote Georgia gospel artists, rural Canadian fishermen, and the opportunities created for the urban kids to mingle with those they’d not ordinarily encounter.
Directed by Robert Gordon
Synopsis
Before Coachella and Woodstock, there was the Newport Folk Festival. Powerful music leaps from the air and can change the actual world. At the Newport Folk Festivals in the early 1960s, the molecules were electric with rebellion and democracy, with anger and hope. Musicians drove that change — Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger but also banjo players from coal country, remote Georgia gospel artists, rural Canadian fishermen, and the opportunities created for the urban kids to mingle with those they’d not ordinarily encounter.
In Attendance: Robert Gordon
Cast
Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez