Woodstock

Woodstock (1970) is Michael Wadleigh's documentary record of three days in Bethel, NY — watch it online on iFILM. In August 1969, roughly half a million people arrived at a dairy farm for a music festival and turned it into something that nobody had planned for. The film was shot by a large crew using multiple simultaneous cameras, then edited into split-screen sequences that became a filmmaking landmark in their own right.

The performances captured here remain extraordinary: Richie Havens opening the festival solo for nearly four hours, The Who tearing through their set after midnight, Joe Cocker in the rain, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at an early stage of their live run. Wadleigh gives equal time to the crowd — the faces, the mud, the improvised medical tents, the National Guard helicopters dropping food — so the film reads as a portrait of a temporary city as much as a concert record.

It took home the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1971. At just under four hours, it asks for patience and rewards it. Stream Woodstock (1970) on iFILM.