What Happened, Miss Simone?

"Her story. Her voice."

2015 1h 41m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 399

MusicDocumentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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

“Her story. Her voice.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Nina Simone
Herself
Lisa Simone
Herself
Dick Gregory
Himself
Stanley Crouch
Himself
Elisabeth Henry-Macari
Miss Mazzie
Ilyasah Shabazz
Self

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Liz Garbus
Writers: Liz Garbus
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 11 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

CRAFT

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Liz Garbus, shot by Igor Martinović. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Joshua L. Pearson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Nina Simone and Lisa Simone and Dick Gregory carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Her story. Her voice.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt4284010 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Liz Garbus directs. Igor Martinović behind the camera. Joshua L. Pearson cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 11 years ago.
2Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
3Directed by Liz Garbus, shot by Igor Martinović. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Editor Joshua L. Pearson shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Nina Simone and Lisa Simone and Dick Gregory carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "Her story. Her voice.".
7IMDB entry: tt4284010 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Classified under 15 themes, including "musician", "civil rights", "child prodigy", "singer".

The technical file

Cinematography: Igor Martinović
Editing: Joshua L. Pearson
Production design: Markus Kirschner
Costume design: Rebecca Luke
Sound: Tony Volante
Runtime: 101 min · 1h 41m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)

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Liz Garbus

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-08-02
★ 7/10
I did not know that Nina Simone was a classically trained pianist, not that she was declined entry into a conservatory in New York - not because of her lack of skill but because of her skin pigmentation. I don't suppose that should have surprised me, but that New York in the 1950s was still that bigoted is pretty shameful. She didn't just take that slight lying down though, and was soon working nightly in a jazz club demonstrating that she was a woman of substance. Soon allied with the pitch perfect guitarist Al Schackman, she begins to drawn bigger crowds, to sing and to find herself a husband/manager in no-nonsense cop Andrew Stroud. Before long, she has a luxury home in Mount Vernon, a Mercedes in the drive and a promising career - but as that success grows, the wheels begin to come off. The relentlessness of her schedule; the arrival of their children; her increasingly veciferous and controversial support of the Civil Rights movement and finally the gradual chasm that developed between her own aspirations and those of her often violent husband all drove her carer into decline and her to thoughts of suicide. Rather than succumb to those, though, she has the presence of mind to get on a plane to Liberia and set about recharging her batteries. Switzerland, Holland and finally Paris all provided conduits for her reinvention of herself before she finally accepts that she would need medication to control her clinically defined illnesses and settles in the South of France. There is a phenomenal collection of archive included here and that, coupled with some frank contributions from her daughter Lisa, a taped interview from 2008 with her ex-husband and contributions from Schackman and others close to her and her family during the time of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, all puts quite a lot of meat on the bones of a character who was in many ways strong and determined, but in others vulnerable. There are no shortage of clips from her musical performances - including a powerfully subtle one from Montreaux in 1976 and by the conclusion I couldn't help compare her life with the equally turbulent ones of the likes of Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner as they, too, struggled with demons from within and without. It was Maya Angelou who posed the title question, and Liz Garbus and some very proficient archivists make a solid effort to let us know.

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