What Happened, Miss Simone?

What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015) is an American music documentary directed by Liz Garbus — watch online on iFILM. Built from concert footage, personal diaries, and interviews with her daughter Lisa Simone and others who knew her, the film traces Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to civil rights icon to self-imposed exile.

Young Eunice Waymon was playing classical repertoire at an age when other children were playing outside. Her community raised money to send her to study. The Curtis Institute turned her away — widely attributed to racial bias — and that rejection echoes through the rest of her life. The Nina Simone who emerged merged jazz, gospel, blues and Bach into something that had no category, and she sang "Mississippi Goddam" at a moment when doing so carried real risk.

Garbus refuses the sanitized version. The film includes her violent marriage, her mental health struggles, the years she disappeared from music entirely. Netflix released it in 2015 and it took home the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary. Stream What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015) online on iFILM.