festival’s Golden Lion award, as noted in the 4 Sep 1963 New York Times. Following its loss to the Italian film Hands Over the City (1963), the 18 Sep 1963 Variety reported that at least one Italian publication, Il Messaggero, decried the judges’ decision. Early reviews were mixed. While Variety commended Clarke for her achievement and The New York Times gave a largely positive review, The Los Angeles Times expressed disappointment, adding that African Americans were better qualified to make films about their people. In the Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds positive reviews from six of six of the site's designated top critics. Richard Brody of the New Yorker praised the film: "Clarke's images endow the characters' energies with a sculptural grandeur and embrace street life with a keenly attentive, unsentimental avidity." Jonathan Rosenbaum also reviewed it positively: "It certainly had a visceral impact when it first appeared, helped enormously by Baird Bryant's cinematography and Dizzy Gillespie's score." Currently there is no home video release of the film. Frederick Wiseman owns the rights, and he is unwilling to release a home video version of The Cool World or to allow Milestone Films to release it among its Shirley Clarke series. Amy Taubin has, in response, called for a boycott of Wiseman films. Soundtrack The soundtrack to the film was recorded by Dizzy Gillespie and his quintet, and was released as an album of the same name in 1964. See also List of American films of 1963 List of hood films References Further reading Sieving, Christopher J. Soul Searching: Black-Themed Cinema from the March on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation, Wesleyan University Press (2011). 280 pp. External links The Cool World essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 600-601 Contemporary review in LIFE Magazine 1963 films United States National Film Registry films Blaxploitation films Films directed by Shirley Clarke Films based on British novels 1963 drama films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films