Director D.A. Pennebaker had already positioned himself as a key counterculture documentarian by the time the summer of love rolled around in 1967. Working with filmmakers such as Albert Maysles and Richard Leacock - who would both contribute to Monterey Pop - Pennebaker had developed a new film language in response to the political and culture upheavals of the 1960s. His output in the years prior to the festival included portraits of John F. Kennedy in Primary and his definitive Bob Dylan documentary, Don't Look Back.

The first and only Monterey International Pop Festival launched the careers of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Otis Redding, but they were just a few among a wildly diverse cast that included Simon & Garfunkel, the Who, the Byrds, Hugh Masekela, and the extraordinary Ravi Shankar. Pennebaker captured it all, immortalising moments that have become legend: Pete Townshend destroying his guitar, Jimi Hendrix burning his.