Nina Simone was a hot shit singer in the late 1960s, then she kinda suddenly disappeared in the 1970s. This fascinating documentary explains why.
Simone was managed by her husband (Tina Turner style) and he was bipolar, at times charming and at times abusive. Like many victims of domestic abuse she blamed herself.
When her fellow band members finally convinced her to leave the bastard, her own mental stability began to waver. Her fame had allowed her to rub shoulders with Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, and other leaders of civil rights. When King was assassinated Simone swung toward the Black Power / Black Panther side of politics, and began calling for armed resistance and a separate Black nation. Her bookings dropped off to zero.
After a few years of struggle she emigrated to Liberia, the African nation founded by ex-slaves.
Her mental stability got worse, she began abusing her daughter who left Liberia to return to her father.
Eventually Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder herself, and started taking medicine. She moved to Switzerland and began performing again, and then to Paris where she had a second career of sorts. But never reclaimed the fame shed known as a young woman.
Sad tale, but well told and sympathetically told.
Home 