What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015) on Netflix

Plot summary

Nina Simone was a child piano prodigy trained in classical music before she became an American singer and pianist known as the High Priestess of Soul and a voice of the civil rights movement. Her uninhibited stage performances drew lifelong fans. Through the civil rights era of 1960s America she weighed her artistic ambition against her commitment to the movement, while racism and political turmoil surrounded her. Her marriage brought domestic abuse and violence into her life, and she also contended with depression and bipolar disorder. Interviews with her daughter and friends, hours of her autobiographical tapes, and previously unreleased archival footage tell the story of her life and career.