Monterey Pop

Three summer days in 1967 when rock grew up over a single weekend — that is Monterey Pop (1968), and you can watch it online on iFILM. D. A. Pennebaker shot this concert documentary right inside the California festival, with no narration and no interviews.

The camera just catches the stage and the faces in the crowd. Otis Redding pours everything into a set before a mostly white audience, six months before his death; Ravi Shankar's sitar holds the field in silence longer than any hit; The Who smash their gear; and a young Jimi Hendrix closes by setting his guitar alight and flinging a piece into the seats. The Mamas and the Papas drift through, Jefferson Airplane bring Grace Slick, Simon and Garfunkel turn up too. Eighty minutes of raw energy with no plot in the usual sense.

Pennebaker worked handheld, in the cinéma-vérité style — nothing staged, only what actually happened. The result entered history as a dry run for Woodstock and a snapshot of an entire generation. It lands for anyone who loves 1960s music and wants to feel it live rather than remastered. Stream Monterey Pop (1968) online on iFILM.