{"id":193000,"date":"2025-12-31T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/?p=193000"},"modified":"2026-01-09T11:58:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:58:06","slug":"tamra-davis-the-best-summer-sundance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slugmag.com\/arts\/art\/tamra-davis-the-best-summer-sundance\/","title":{"rendered":"Tamra Davis Revisits ‘The Best Summer’ of Her Life at Sundance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tamra Davis spent the summer of 1995 filming musicians she already knew, carrying a camera through shows, backstage hallways and tour buses at the Summersault<\/em> music festival in Australia. At the time, the footage wasn\u2019t meant to become anything. 30 years later, while evacuating from the Palisades fires in January 2025, Davis found boxes of videotapes she had shot that summer featuring Sonic Youth<\/strong>, Beastie Boys<\/strong>, Foo Fighters<\/strong>, Pavement<\/strong>, Bikini Kill<\/strong>, Beck<\/strong> and more.<\/p>\n

\"Thurston
Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, Tamra Davis and Alfredo Ortiz appear in The Best Summer. Courtesy of Sundance Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Watching them decades later, Davis realized she had documented a rare and intimate moment in music history. \u201cI was like, what is in all these boxes of tapes that I\u2019m ferrying around, trying to protect from the fire?\u201d Davis says. \u201cSo I looked at them, and that\u2019s when I realized I filmed a documentary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when I watch it, it\u2019s like somebody recorded my brain.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The footage became The Best Summer<\/em><\/a>, which premieres at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival<\/em><\/a> as part of the Midnight program. The film is entirely archival, shot handheld by Davis herself, placing viewers directly inside the moment. It stays immersed in 1995, with no present-day commentary. \u201cI just want [the audience] to go back to the \u201890s, and it [to] be pure,\u201d Davis says. \u201cSo there\u2019s no conversation; there\u2019s no context. I take you back there and you never leave that time.\u201d For Davis, rediscovering the tapes was also a confrontation with memory. \u201cIt\u2019s literally my point of view,\u201d she says. \u201cSo when I watch it, it\u2019s like somebody recorded my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Tamra Davis, director of The Best Summer, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1990s, Davis was already deeply embedded in music culture, directing videos during what she calls \u201cthe heyday for music videos.\u201d She often operated the camera herself. \u201cI went to film school and I just always had a camera in my hand,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I not only was directing them, but I usually shot a good portion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m talking to Beck, or any of those guys, they\u2019re looking at me.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

During Summersault<\/em>, that constant filming blended into daily life. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like, \u2018Oh, a journalist is here,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt was like, I was part of the group, and I just so happened to have \u2014 and always had \u2014 a camera.\u201d Davis says that familiarity shapes the film\u2019s tone. Musicians speak casually, joke, ramble and sit in silence. \u201cI left the interviews uncut,\u201d Davis says. \u201cAlmost all the concert footage is one shot.\u201d She credits that intimacy to trust and proximity. \u201cWhen I\u2019m talking to Beck, or any of those guys, they\u2019re looking at me,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I kept the whole thing POV. It looks like they\u2019re looking at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back now, Davis sees the era as unusually communal. The audience is present. The bands are accessible. Phones are nowhere in sight. \u201cYou look at the audience, the audience is there,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s no phones. Nobody is looking at the band with a screen in front of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kim
Kim Gordon and Kim Deal appear in The Best Summer. Courtesy of Sundance Institute<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When editing The Best Summer<\/em>, Davis made a deliberate choice to work independently. \u201cI decided to self-finance the film so that I didn\u2019t get any notes from executives,\u201d she says. Instead, she screened cuts directly for the musicians. \u201cSo when I got my cuts done, I screened it for the bands, for them to give me notes,\u201d Davis says. \u201cI own this \u2014 that\u2019s the only way a film would ever have gotten approval from all these bands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to self-finance the film so that I didn\u2019t get any notes from executives.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As The Best Summer<\/em> premieres, Davis hopes it encourages younger creators to make work without waiting for permission. \u201cIf you have a movie to make, and you want to make a movie, you tell yourself to make movies,\u201d Davis says. \u201cAnd [it] doesn\u2019t matter what Hollywood is doing, right? It\u2019s on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Best Summer<\/em> screens at Sundance<\/em> beginning Jan. 24, with additional Park City and Salt Lake City showings, and will be available online Jan. 29 through Feb. 1.<\/p>\n