Questlove’s Sly Stone Documentary to Premiere at 2025 Sundance
New docs about Jeff Buckley, Selena, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono will also screen in competition at Utah film festival next month
New documentaries about Selena, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Jeff Buckley, and Sly Stone are among the films competing at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival next month.
Amir “Questlove” Thompson’s long-in-the-works Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) — the follow-up to the Roots drummer’s Oscar-winning directorial debut Summer of Soul — will premiere at the fest, which begins in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah on Jan. 23.
“It’s official! SLY LIVES! (AKA The Burden of Black Genius) will premiere at the 2025 #Sundance Film Festival,” Questlove wrote on social media Wednesday. “The film explores the life, music, and cultural impact of Sly Stone, shedding light on the challenges faced by Black artists navigating success.”
Other new music docs include It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley and Selena y Los Dinos — featuring never-before-seen footage of the gone-too-soon artists — as well as One to One: John & Yoko, which follows the 18 months when Lennon and Ono first moved to New York’s Greenwich Village.
Additionally, Pee-wee as Himself — a two-part documentary about the late Paul Reubens and his beloved alter ego Pee-wee Herman — will premiere at the fest.
On the fiction film side of the festival, Sundance will also host the debut screening of the latest big-screen adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman starring Jennifer Lopez, Opus co-starring Ayo Edebiri and Juliette Lewis, and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a Josh Safdie-produced movie with Rose Byrne, Conan O’Brien, and A$AP Rocky.
See the entire slate of 93 projects heading to Sundance at the film festival’s official site.