Sly Stone Documentary From Questlove Opens at Sundance, Shares Trailer
by Best Classic Bands Staff
A new documentary on the leader and legacy of Sly and the Family Stone from director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The film, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), was first announced in 2021. In its review, Deadline wrote, “the archive material is stunning, not just in the live footage from the good old days when Stone actually showed up to play but also in the news clips that act as a stark reminder of the dark side of the ’60s, with the assassinations of two Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King taking place against the nightmarish backdrop of the Vietnam War.”
The film has been acquired by Hulu; its streaming debut is February 13. Watch the official trailer below.
In its review, Variety wrote, “Questlove, while hewing to a classical and journalistic documentary tradition, is working furiously to get it all in — the vast, extraordinary story of how Sly Stone, starting in the late ’60s, became the rock star of his moment, smashing through boundaries of sound and image, scaling the peak of a new kind of Black fame, to the point that he had nowhere to go but down. And he did. Dramatically.”
In the film’s original announcement, back in 2021, Questlove said in a statement: “It goes beyond saying that Sly’s creative legacy is in my DNA….it’s a black musician’s blueprint….to be given the honor to explore his history and legacy is beyond a dream for me.”
Watch the official trailer
Sly Stone, born Sylvester Stewart on March 15, 1943, formed the biracial, mixed-gender psychedelic soul-rock-funk group in the mid-’60s and led it to great success over the next several years, scoring hits like “Dance to the Music,” “Everyday People” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” Sly and the Family Stone were one of the most celebrated acts at the 1969 Woodstock festival and the documentary film made of the event.
In a June 13, 2024, interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to promote his new book, Hip Hop is History, Thompson, the drummer of the Roots, offered a brief update as he was about to be finish it. “When I’m done [with this interview]… I’m gonna actually finalize it. Today’s the last day… two years of working on [it].” [Questlove’s recent book is available here.]
Questlove on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe,’ June 13, 2024
Thompson’s 2021 directorial debut, Summer of Soul (… Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, and Sly Lives! serves as a worthy companion. The film, which tells of the little known 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, secured a distribution deal with Searchlight Pictures and Hulu. It’s also available for purchase here.
On the same day as news of the documentary was first revealed, Sony Music released an animated video of “Everyday People.”
Stone published his memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), in 2023. It’s available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. The group’s recordings are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
Related: The story behind Sly’s “Dance to the Music”
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Jump into a conversationThe full story of Larry Graham. https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/101989125#h=1:0-44:22
Athens, Ohio, a cold and wintery day in early 1972: The show started late, and after a wobbly entrance and clearly intoxicated by something–or maybe many things–Sly had to physically be helped strapping on his guitar. “Oh oh,” I’m thinking from the sixth row, this is looking to be a major train wreck. What followed, however, was the most amazing, tight, powerful and soulful 45-minute show I’ve ever attended. And then he and the band were gone.