Director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson knows the challenges of a sophomore follow-up. As both a Grammy Award-winning member of The Roots and an Oscar winner for the documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), my favorite film of 2022, the prospect of putting together another feature can be intimidating. Fortunately, success has not diminished his ambition. Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) may lack the sort of new-to-you energy of revelations concerning the existence of the Harlem Cultural Festival, but it does have more to say about Sly and the Family Stone than simply presenting a hagiographic-style music doc. As such, the results should please a variety of everyday people.
Structurally, this is still a reasonably formal documentary. A rush of familiar faces speaking about what Sly and the Family Stone meant to them and some out-of-context quotes open the film before we settle down. That said, Questlove presents many interviewees with a specific question about the nature of Black genius. It’s a complicated thing to consider, as he’s getting to the core of what the film intends to explore – whether or not it’s inherently better for a Black person to be looked at and seen as a genius in American society.
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From there, the film takes on a chronological breakdown of the band, specifically its founder and leader, Sylvester Stewart. Without getting too far into explaining everything about the man and the band, Stewart is a Texas-born musician who mastered several instruments at an early age and worked as a record producer before forming a band of his own. Once Sly and the Family Stone was formed with his brother Freddie, it felt truly revolutionary as a racially integrated and mixed-gender act that would pioneer funk music and add a whole new spin to soul, rock, R&B, gospel, and 60s psychedelic sounds.
Looking at this from a personal level, I only knew so much about Sly and the Family Stone going in. I did know better than to think Questlove would simply tell me all I needed to know in a manner fitting for Wikipedia. This was the right way of thinking, as the film puts great effort into providing a level of context for the time in which Sly existed, what the popularity of that group meant, and the challenges of being a human being who didn’t make the best choices as the years went by.
Now, there is plenty to marvel at. Along with their innovation regarding the lineup of their group and the type of music Sly and the Family Stone were producing, their influence is unquestioned. In addition to the various clips we see as far as all the different groups that either used samples or were directly inspired by the band’s signature sound, Sly Lives! features interviews with Andre 3000, D’Angelo, Q-Tip, Chaka Khan, George Clinton, Nile Rogers, Jimmy Jam, Ruth Copeland, and more. Each of them has unique insight into what the band meant to them, as well as what they felt about Sly Stone’s way of life.
Adding even more valuable insight are the band members who appear, including Jerry Martini, Greg Errico, Larry Graham, and Cynthia Robinson, along with members of Sly’s own family. It’s not necessarily a matter of being all-encompassing (Sly, who is still alive, is not present in this doc, which is not surprising, though he seems to have given approval), but there is a sense of a filmmaker attempting to find the true value of what this man accomplished during his best of times, along with his lower moments.
Throughout the film, we see clips of Sly Stone speaking at a period following the band’s most successful era, commenting on both his genius and what could be holding him back. Other sections of the film deal with his drug use and the period of time when Sly and the Family Stone simply wasn’t connecting in the same way as time wore on, and other groups picked up on what pushed this older group to so much success. Whether or not it’s a result of something specific or if it was fair to see happen, it’s seeing a continued focus on Sly contending with being someone with so much to offer to the point of living that sort of life to the fullest at a constant pace that allows this doc to shine in its attempt to let an audience understand the man.
There is one thing, outside of the songs, that I was pretty aware of when it came to seeing Sly and the Family Stone live: whether or not Sly would actually show up (or how late he would be). This stems from bad choices, interpersonal clashes, and whatnot. However, having a documentary explore more of why that is does a lot of good for not necessarily washing away the man’s sins but providing a context. That doesn’t mean all genius musicians can be excused for their actions, but when you see how much good a band can bring to the world through their art, it’s worth digging in a bit to understand it better.
Rather fittingly, Sly and the Family Stone is the only band to have performed at both the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and Woodstock ‘69. What Questlove has done with Sly Lives! is add understanding to how that could have been possible, which comes down to just how strong a group they were and their appeal. As a way to follow up a film focused on something so specific yet unknown to many, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) works really well as a spiritual companion to Summer of Soul. Whether or not Questlove wants to continue exploring Black excellence through art related to times that don’t receive as much attention, I cannot say. But based on what he’s delivering, I’m happy to dance to whatever cinematic music he’s putting out here.
Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2025. It will be available to stream on Hulu starting February 13.
