SUMMER OF ’85, premieres tomorrow, July 21st!
Philly native Kevin Hart tells the story of the summer of 1985 in Philadelphia, when the city was rocked by two unprecedented events: Mayor Wilson Goode’s May 13th decision to drop a bomb on headquarters of MOVE, a controversial Philadelphia-based cult and the July 13thLive Aid concert, where international rock royalty convened in Philly to raise money for Ethiopian famine victims.
SUMMER OF ‘85 is told in alternating storylines; Live Aid – the first global benefit concert to support Ethiopians suffering from famine and the MOVE bombing where Philadelphia’s first black mayor dropped a literal bomb on a residential neighborhood and destroyed two+ city blocks.
Featuring candid interviews with participants like Bob Geldof, Patti LaBelle and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, the series will explore the good intentions, ill intentions, and intentions gone awry during those two months. SUMMER OF ’85 is a deep dive into the complex history that resulted in these outlier events paired by proximity and a combustible mix of ego, altruism, prejudice, utopian dreams, and human frailty.
Chapters feature a mix of archival footage, interviews with direct participants in the events and original reporting. By juxtaposing these two events, this story reveals core human contradictions of independence, delusions of grandeur, generosity, government violence, structural and overt racism and how often good intentions can have intensely complicated legacies.