Sundance Film Festival 2026 – Before she directed major films like Billy Madison, Tamara Davis directed music videos for Depeche Mode, NWA, and even Hanson. Her latest film, The Best Summer, finds her returning to her roots after discovering dozens of tapes from an alternative rock tour in the mid-90s. The result is a captivating documentary featuring alt rock legends, including Sonic Youth, Beck, Bikini Kill, Rancid, Pavement, the Beastie Boys, among others.
Davis discovered the tapes after evacuating her California home last year, due to the wildfires. The footage is primarily from the Summersault Australian music festival in 1995, the heyday of alternative rock. There’s footage of Bikini Kill performing “Rebel Girl,” Rancid playing “Radio” as Tim Armstrong spins around on stage, and the Beastie Boys rocking out to “Sure Shot.” Just for the musical clips alone, this documentary is worth a watch.
While the film contains plenty of awesome concert footage, the behind-the-scenes, backstage footage is equally, if not, more compelling. Bikini Kill’s front woman Kathleen Hanna interviewed several of her peers, beginning with basic questions, like their favorite color and food, but also what they’re currently reading and if they separate their public, on-stage persona from their private life. Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon gives an especially fascinating and long answer, mentioning how it can be difficult to separate the private from the public persona, since she was married to her band mate, Thurston Moore, for years. Dave Grohl, who was on the tour with the just-formed Foo Fighters following Kurt Cobain’s death, gives an equally fascinating and even philosophical answer.
What the documentary does especially well is balance the concert footage with authentic backstage moments. At the time, Davis was married to the Beastie Boys’ Mike D, so she had all kinds of access, and thankfully, her tapes were not lost or destroyed.
The last 20 minutes or so shifts because half of the bands split off to play festival dates in Asia. There’s an especially awesome scene where Dave Grohl joins the Beastie Boys on stage for a killer version of “Sabotage.” It’s likely this is the first time that anyone has seen this footage. This was at least a decade or so before anyone heard of YouTube. Imagine that.
It’s unclear if there was any drama during either of the festivals that the documentary covers. If there was, none of that made the cut. Instead, it appears as though all of the bands really enjoyed each other’s company and playing together. Mind you, many of these bands came up through the punk rock underground and even joke several times about becoming famous, but none of them appeared to have egos, unless Davis cut some of that out. Even the Beastie Boys, who were probably the biggest band on the tour, don’t come across as rock stars.
For anyone who grew up in the 90s and was into alternative rock, The Best Summer is a must-see. The concert footage is worth the price of the ticket alone, but the really interesting scenes are the backstage moments, when the musicians step off stage and show some vulnerability. This doc captures an era when the music was loud and distorted, and thankfully, Davis was there to capture it, mosh pits and all.
