The film traces Nina Simone through the many decades of her life, including growing up as Eunice Waymon, a piano prodigy in
Tryon, NC, attending a summer program at
The Juilliard School in New York and facing her first rejection from the
Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. There, she went on to play piano at a bar in
Atlantic City, and when forced to sing, she discovered her distinctive style that caught the attention of
Bethlehem Records. It was there that she became known with her hit song, an interpretation of
George Gershwin's "
I Loves You, Porgy", and became a unique voice that was typically called
jazz, but combined elements of classical, folk, pop, gospel, hymns, African, Jewish music and more. As the film recounts, she would ultimately use her musical voice to protest the inequality and brutality of segregation and American racism through songs like "
Mississippi Goddam", "
To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "
Four Women (song)", the
Kurt Weill standard "
Pirate Jenny" and many more. The film is told through the stories and memories of
Nikki Giovanni,
Eric Burdon of
The Animals,
Chuck Stewart,
Billy Vera,
Horace Ott,
Lester Hyman,
Tom Schnabel, Roscoe Dellums, Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt and Sam Waymon, Nina's brother and longtime band member. ==Production==