''Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)'' is a 2025 American

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

film, directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. It explores the life, career, and legacy of

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band formed in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1966 and active until 1983. Their work, which blended elements of funk, soul music, soul, psychedelic rock, gospel music, gospel, and R&B, becam ...

. It had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

on January 23, 2025, and was released on February 13, 2025, on

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

and

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Premise

Explores the life, career, and legacy of

. Andre 3000,

D'Angelo Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...

Chaka Khan Yvette Marie Stevens (born March 23, 1953), better known by her stage name Chaka Khan ( ), is an American singer. Known as the " Queen of Funk", her career has spanned more than five decades beginning in the early 1970s as the lead vocalist of ...

Q-Tip Cotton swabs (American English) or cotton buds (British English), also Q-tips ( proprietary eponym), are wads of cotton wrapped around a short rod made of wood, rolled paper, or plastic. They are most commonly used for ear cleaning, although th ...

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 750 million albums and 1 ...

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis James Samuel "Jimmy Jam" Harris III (born June 6, 1959) and Terry Steven Lewis (born November 24, 1956) are an American R&B/ pop songwriting and record production team. Their productions have received commercial success since the 1980s with var ...

, George Clinton,

Ruth Copeland Ruth Copeland (born ) is an English former singer, based in the United States since the 1960s and known for her collaborations with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. Biography Early life Copeland was born in Consett, County Durham, in ...

and

Clive Davis Clive Jay Davis (born April 4, 1932) is an American record producer, A&R executive, record executive, and lawyer. He has won five Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a non-performer, in 2000. From 1967 to 1 ...

appear in the film.

Production

In February 2021, it was announced Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson would direct a documentary revolving around

with

Common Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Com ...

set to executive produce. In the making of the film, some interviews from Greg Zola's '' Small Talk About Sly'' and Michael Rubinstone's '' On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone'' were used. In January 2023,

Onyx Collective Onyx Collective is a content brand owned and operated by Disney Entertainment, which primarily consists of projects from creators of color and other underrepresented groups. The brand was first launched on May 17, 2021, with several projects un ...

and

acquired the film.

Release

It had its world premiere at the

on January 23, 2025. It was released on February 13, 2025.

Reception

Robert Daniels of ''

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...

'' gave the film three and a half out of four stars and wrote, "''Sly Lives!'' isn't as eye-opening as '' Summer of Soul'' (a difficult hill to climb). But it's still a clear cut above your standard hagiographic music documentary. This film sees Sly as a three-dimensional person whose brilliance should neither absolve nor condemn him. It marvels at his genius and mourns the evaporation of his hitmaking talent. It is as vibrant, colorful, and catchy as any Sly and the Family Stone chart-topper."

References

External links

* {{Sly and the Family Stone 2020s English-language films 2020s American films 2025 documentary films 2025 films American documentary films Documentary films about singers Documentary films about African Americans MRC (company) films Onyx Collective original programming Hulu original films Films about Sly Stone