Amir “Questlove” Thompson’s upcoming documentary, Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), debuted its trailer on Thursday. The video showcases the band’s meteoric rise and the cultural impact of its enigmatic frontman Sly Stone.
The film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, and is set to release Feb. 13, on Hulu. According to a press release, the doc “examines the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone, the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic and enigmatic Sly Stone.” The project will also capture “the band’s rise, reign and subsequent fadeout while shedding light on the unseen burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.”
The follow-up to the Roots drummer’s Oscar-winning directorial debut Summer of Soul (which highlighted the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, dubbed “the Black Woodstock”) has long been in the works. In a 2021 statement discussing the soon-to-be-released film, Questlove said, “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.”
“From the moment we got together, Sly knew exactly what he wanted,” Greg Errico, the band’s drummer, previously recalled of the group’s leader. “He knew he wanted to mix all of these musical elements and he knew he wanted a mixed race band.”
“The first time that we got together, we didn’t even play a note,” Errico said when looking back at the day Sly brought the group together. “We talked a lot about what we were going to do. And we all quickly realized what Sly was doing when we looked around at each other. There were race riots going on at the time. Putting a musical group together with male and female and black and white, to us, it felt really natural and cool and comfortable, but it made a statement that was definitely threatening to some people.”
While Questlove directed the new doc, Joseph Patel and Derik Murray serve as producers on the film. Family Stone members Jerry Martini, Larry Graham Jr. and Greg Errico are featured in Sly Lives!, alongside Andre 3000, Chaka Khan, Q-Tip, D’Angelo, Nile Rogers and Clive Davis.