Fresh of his award-winning screening of Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) earlier this year, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson has now been announced as the director for a forthcoming documentary about pioneering funk musician and bandleader, Sly Stone.
A report published by Deadline on Friday details Questlove will team up with Executive Producer Common for the currently-untitled feature documentary, but did not provide any further information on the project. The report generally states that the documentary “Is expected to focus not just on [Sly’s] successes, but also the consequences and cultural expectations of that rise in an era of expanding media, shifting societal norms in the Sixties, the Black Power movement and the backlash that followed.”
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“It goes beyond saying that Sly’s creative legacy is in my DNA,” Questlove said in a statement about his involvement in the forthcoming film. “It’s a black musician’s blueprint….to be given the honor to explore his history and legacy is beyond a dream for me.”
The Questlove-directed Summer of Soul–which featured Sly & The Family Stone–took home the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the documentary category at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Disney has since acquired the distribution rights to the film, which will be released to theaters at some point, and will stream on Hulu in the U.S. (and internationally on Star and Star+).
[H/TÂ Deadline]