What Happened, Miss Simone?

What Happened, Miss Simone?

What Happened, Miss Simone?

Watch Trailer Watch Movie

Share

What Happened, Miss Simone?

"Her story. Her voice."

2015

1h 41m

7.4(382 votes)

Music

Documentary

Overview

The film chronicles Nina Simone's journey from child piano prodigy to iconic musician and passionate activist, told in her own words.

Where to Watch

Stream

Netflix

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

RadicalMedia

Story Syndicate

Videos & Trailers

2 videos

Cast & Crew

6 members

Acting

Nina Simone

Herself

Nina Simone

Acting

Lisa Simone

Herself

Lisa Simone

Acting

Dick Gregory

Himself

Dick Gregory

Acting

Stanley Crouch

Himself

Stanley Crouch

Acting

Elisabeth Henry-Macari

Miss Mazzie

Elisabeth Henry-Macari

Acting

Ilyasah Shabazz

Self

No Image

Similar Movies

Rock 'n' Roll Frankenstein

Rock 'n' Roll Frankenstein

The movie follows Bernie, a record producer who persuades his nephew Frankie to create a new rock star that will help Bernie overcome his work related ennui. Iggy, the burnt out roadie pillages the graves of various celebrities such as Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, and Sid Vicious, using the head of Elvis Presley to top things off. All goes according to plan until a mishap leads Iggy to steal Liberace's private parts instead of those of Jim Morrison. The monster is brought to life and is on the road to rock 'n' roll success when the Liberace side of the monster begins to assert itself, with tragic results. The result: a monster (Guggenheim) with the sex drive of a macho rock star and the sexual orientation of Liberace.

The Yes Men

The Yes Men

A comic, biting and revelatory documentary following a small group of prankster activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization (WTO) on television and at business conferences around the world.

Black Men in Uniform

Black Men in Uniform

Pata Seca (1828), a man whose back bore the whip marks of his enslavers , whose eyes held the haunted memory of being forced to breed over 200 slave children in order to sustain his master’s plantation. Men broken but unbowed, transformed from field hands into soldiers from the civil war to Vietnam. This documentary weaves together authentic narratives from the 1800s, accompanied by original images and footage, highlighting the significant influence that Black men in uniform had in Hollywood and addressing ongoing relevant issues to date.

Eric Satie: Reloaded

Eric Satie: Reloaded

In 2025, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the death of Erik Satie, father of minimalist music. His texts, brimming with humor and despair, and rare archives of his fellow travelers, tell the story of a man filled with doubt, a composer ferociously ahead of his time. His pieces continue to inspire even the most avant-garde artists.

Brownie Speaks

Brownie Speaks

A native of Wilmington, Delaware, jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown made an outstanding and influential contribution to music. In an era when many musicians were emulating Charlie Parker’s drug abuse, Brown inspired others to achieve greatness while living a clean life. Ironically, he was killed in a car accident at the age of 25. This feature-length documentary presents a richly detailed account of Brown’s life, and examines his historical importance in the context of three criteria–innovation, influence, and individuality.

I'm Not There

I'm Not There

Six actors portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages of his life, chronicling his rise from unknown folksinger to international icon and revealing how Dylan constantly reinvented himself.

Real, True 100 Percent Love

After her boyfriend mysteriously vanishes, Elli DeCosta’s personal heartbreak escalates into an international adventure involving Russian agents, the CIA, and a journey to rediscover her voice when he suddenly resurfaces months later.

Petey & Ginger

Petey & Ginger

When the global economy collapses the only true victors are those that weren't invited to the boom. Petey plays in a band and works in a pornography warehouse; Ginger works the night shift in a bar. From opposite coasts of the country, the two provide their personal takes on individual vs. collective crisis, together weaving a narrative that exposes a wasteland of shattered economic dreams, unfulfilled social promises and a bleak reality that only music and friendship can float freely above.

Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.

Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.

Robert De Niro, Sr., was a celebrated painter obscured by the pop-art movement. His life and career are chronicled in the artist's own words by his contemporaries and, movingly, by his son, the actor Robert De Niro.

Blindsight

Blindsight

Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.

Luiz Melodia - Within the Heart of Brazil

Luiz Melodia - Within the Heart of Brazil

A sound and visual journey that portrays the life and work of singer and composer Luiz Melodia. The Poet of Estácio himself tells us, in the first person, his trajectory as a black boy born on the hill until his transformation into one of the greatest artists in the history of MPB. The film also features an unpublished collection made available by Jane Reis, his wife and businesswoman.

Belushi

Belushi

Using previously unheard audiotapes recorded shortly after John Belushi’s death, director R.J. Cutler’s documentary feature examines the too-short life of the once-in-a-generation talent who captured the hearts and funny bones of devoted audiences.

August Rush

August Rush

Lyla and Louis, a singer and a musician, fall in love, but are soon compelled to separate. Lyla is forced to give up her newborn but unknown to her, he grows up to become a musical genius.

The (Dead Mothers) Club

The (Dead Mothers) Club

Three women whose paths never cross, yet are bound by the shared experience of losing their mothers during adolescence, exploring each one’s sometimes-complex relationship with her mother.

Citizens of Cosmopolis

An in-depth documentary about the making of David Cronenberg's feature film, Cosmopolis (2012), an adaptation of Don DeLillo's novel of the same name.

The Chorus

The Chorus

In 1940s France, a new teacher at a school for disruptive boys gives hope and inspiration.

Play with the Devil – Becoming Zeal & Ardor

Play with the Devil – Becoming Zeal & Ardor

Zeal & Ardor catapults Swiss musician Manuel Gagneux from the underground to the world stage. Religion, racism, segregation and appropriation: Gagneux makes music against taboos. But being a leader against his will scares the introverted artist. Can he remix the game?

Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum

Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum

The film tells the story of the intimate and unprecedented encounter between the photojournalists of the Magnum Agency and the world of cinema. The confrontation of two seemingly opposite worlds – fiction and reality. For 70 years their paths crossed: a family of photographers, amongst them the biggest names in photography, and a family of actors and filmmakers who helped write the history of cinema, from John Huston to Marilyn Monroe to Orson Welles, Kate Winslet and Sean Penn.

Noseland

Noseland

A humorous ode to the world of classical music and some of its star musicians.

Maria's Story

Maria's Story

It is El Salvador, 1989, three years before the end of a brutal civil war that took 75,000 lives. Maria Serrano, wife, mother, and guerrilla leader is on the front lines of the battle for her people and her country. With unprecedented access to FMLN guerrilla camps, the filmmakers dramatically chronicle Maria's daily life in the war.

Recommended Movies

The Dish & the Spoon

The Dish & the Spoon

Two wounded souls commiserate through drinking and aimless wandering while acting out the roles of the happy relationships that elude them in reality.

John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky

John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky

Film telling the untold story of John Lennon's 1971 album Imagine, exploring the creative collaboration between Lennon and Yoko Ono and featuring interviews and never-seen-before footage.

I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story

I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story

A documentary about Caroll Spinney who has been Sesame Street's Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since 1969. At 78-years-old, he has no intention of stopping.

Never a Dull Moment

Never a Dull Moment

When practicing for a role, actor Jack is mistaken for the killer Ace. He doesn't realize this until it's too late and is carried off to gangster boss Leo Smooth, who wants Ace to do a job for him. Fearing for his life, Jack plays his role, but always searching for a way out of the well-guarded house.

Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus

Accidental Luxuriance of the Translucent Watery Rebus

Martin tried to fight the system, and now he's on the run. Sara is a conceptual artist. Together they join the revolutionary commune in the countryside. The police are on their trail. Inspector Ambroz knows the right questions are more important than the answers. Because maybe none of this is true.

Three

Three

Realising that he will be defeated in no time during a police showdown, a thug shoots himself to force the cops to cease fire and take him to the hospital. In the hospital, he claims human rights to refuse immediate treatment in order to buy time for his underlings to rescue him. The detective in charge sees through his scheme but decides to play along so as to capture his whole gang once and for all.

The Last Forest

The Last Forest

In powerful images, alternating between documentary observation and staged sequences, and dense soundscapes, Luiz Bolognesi documents the Indigenous community of the Yanomami and depicts their threatened natural environment in the Amazon rainforest.

The Hunting Ground

The Hunting Ground

A startling expose of rape crimes on US campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families. The film follows the lives of several undergraduate assault survivors as they attempt to pursue—despite incredible push back, harassment and traumatic aftermath—both their education and justice.

Do I Sound Gay?

Do I Sound Gay?

What makes a voice “gay”? A breakup with his boyfriend sets journalist David Thorpe on a quest to unravel a linguistic mystery.

Entertainment

Entertainment

Set in the Mojave Desert, the film follows a broken-down comedian playing clubs across the Southwest, working his way to Los Angeles to meet his estranged daughter.

She's Beautiful When She's Angry

She's Beautiful When She's Angry

A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.

Chasing Trane

Chasing Trane

An account of the life of the brilliant jazz musician John Coltrane (1926-67), a gifted saxophonist, an extraordinarily talented thinker whose original, avant-garde work has impacted and influenced people all over the world. A story about music's ability to entertain, inspire and transform.

ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads

ReMastered: Devil at the Crossroads

Robert Johnson was one of the most influential blues guitarists ever. Even before his early death, fans wondered if he'd made a pact with the Devil.

Racing Extinction

Racing Extinction

An unlikely team of activists and innovators hatches a bold mission to save endangered species.

ReMastered: Who Shot the Sheriff

ReMastered: Who Shot the Sheriff

In 1976, reggae icon Bob Marley survived an assassination attempt as rival political groups battled in Jamaica. But who exactly was responsible?

Bear Story

Bear Story

An old bear goes out every day to a busy street corner. Through a tin marionette theater of his own making, the bear will tell us his life story.

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson

Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.

Patrik, Age 1.5

Patrik, Age 1.5

Göran and Sven have been cleared for adoption and they have a possibility to adopt a swedish orphan, Patrik 1,5. But when Patrik arrives he turns out to be someone else, not the little boy they were expecting. A comma had been misplaced, and in comes a 15-year-old homophobic with a criminal past.

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

An immersive look at the eventful life and brilliant artistic career of visionary American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991).

Rocco

Rocco

Rocco Siffredi is to pornography what Mike Tyson is to boxing or Mick Jagger is to rock’n’roll: a living legend. His mother wanted him to be a priest; with her blessing he became a hardcore performer, devoting his life to one God only: Desire. Rocco Siffredi reveals all, even if it sometimes means busting his own myth: his true story, beginnings, career, wife and children… and the ultimate revelation that will change his life forever.