New folk music documentary taps into Bob Dylan revival

VENICE — A new documentary featuring never-before-seen footage of a pivotal moment in folk music history taps into a revival of interest in Bob Dylan thanks to recent biopic “A Complete Unknown,” which starred Timothee Chalamet.

“Newport and the Great Folk Dream,” which premieres at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, charts the development of the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in the early 1960s.

Director Robert Gordon picked through 90 hours of black-and-white archive footage shot and then stored for decades by filmmaker Murray Lerner, who made a 1967 documentary “Festival.”

“It was a constant revelation of gems and treasures,” Gordon told reporters at a press conference Friday.

Although the documentary sometimes struggles for narrative drive, music fans are likely to soak up