Tamra Davis’ “The Best Summer” began when the filmmaker grabbed boxes of old Hi8 footage in her haste to evacuate from the Palisades fires in January 2025.
Davis, who is known for films such as “Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child,” was also, in the ’90s, a “wife on the road” as she toured with her husband, Mike D of the Beastie Boys. When she began to review the boxes of footage saved from the fires, Davis said she didn’t yet know what she had unearthed.
“I was like ‘Oh my God.’ Like, I knew that I had Beastie Boys footage, and I knew that I had Bikini Kill footage, but I didn’t know I had Foo Fighters or Pavement or any of the interviews,” Davis said. “I couldn’t even believe I did that.”
“The Best Summer” immerses the viewer in the point-of-view of Davis touring with the legendary bands. A young Davis is seen on screen with Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna as the pair interview members of the bands throughout a summer of touring around the world.
It’s an intimate sit-down with the musicians and a ticket to the bands’ concerts in their early days. “The Best Summer” leads to conversations that uncover what the musicians feel when they are on stage, if they take on a stage persona and, more simply, their favorite colors and what they are reading.
A “baby-faced” Dave Grohl said his favorite color was green. Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon said she did not stray much from her regular personality on stage. Hanna, alongside Davis, dutifully interviewed the musicians at each stop on the tour.
The interviews are intercut with live performances. When Bikini Kill performs “Rebel Girl,” it feels less on-screen and more in-person. The song is riveting with Hanna singing into the microphone, her guttural voice echoing. Beastie Boys jump around, rapping in their trademark chaotic fashion. Dave Grohl whips his hair around in between guitar riffs and vocals.
It’s the “golden era” of alternative rock.
“I just wanted it to feel like it was your experience. Like, if you’re sitting at the stage or on the side of the stage, what your eye would go to,” Davis said.
Davis’ documentary is nostalgic not only because of the content, but also because of the medium. The Hi8 footage has low-definition quality with vivid color and surprisingly rich audio.
“And also just how everybody was so young and beautiful,” Davis said. “Like, we’re all beautiful now but just, wow, what a fun time. How happy we were. … That’s why I called it ‘The Best Summer’ because, when you look back at it, we really all had such a great time together.”
Davis began cutting the film together on the editing software DaVinci Resolve after viewing the footage on a second-hand camera. She decided to pursue an independent approach to filmmaking this time to avoid limitations and expectations.
The goal, she said, was to “chunk it together” like a tour diary. Davis did not want to be held up by anyone.
“I’m not going to wait for Hollywood,” Davis said. “I’m just going to start making a film all by myself.”
The result does not follow a classic documentary format with introductions, explanations and talking heads. Instead, it’s an immediate jump into the world of the bands. It is interviews with Beck, Rancid and Pavement. It is talks with Hanna and Gordon on peach-colored couches and in random hallways.
“There’s no explanation. There’s no commentary. You just go into it like you’re going to go day one at a festival,” Davis said.
There was plenty of downtime on the road in 1995, Davis said. She started filming because she “wanted to have fun on the road, too.” The musicians knew Davis as a director, so it was common for her to have a camera in hand. When they saw her in the front row, the bandmates would cater to her videography, jumping up and down, singing and playing in front of the camera.
Davis said she is most proud of some behind-the-scenes moments when she captures chemistry between musicians, or in-depth, “real” conversations. There is some footage Davis said she is surprised by the result, like the quality of a Sonic Youth performance featuring a strobe light. It’s just as jarring on screen as it would be in person.
“Every time I watch it, you feel like you’re all high, like all of a sudden something happens to you where you really feel like you’re on the side of the stage and you’re having an experience at a concert. You’re really there,” Davis said.
The spirit of independent filmmaking, Davis said, gives voice to the filmmakers that offers a chance to produce a result outside of the mainstream.
“The heart that I put into it — I got every single band to approve this movie, which is nearly impossible for anybody to have ever done that,” Davis said.
The film is like putting a captive audience in a time machine for 80 minutes, Davis said.
“It’s just a beautiful piece of nostalgia and memory. … What a beautiful time that was. And to treasure our past with honor and to see where we’ve come from, but also to look back and go, wow, what a beautiful moment we had,” Davis said.
Davis said she is proud of the result and the film’s 2026 Sundance Film Festival debut.
“I was so excited to know that the independent film spirit is still there, and that’s all Sundance was about,” Davis said. “It’s just giving a voice to independent film.”