'Sly Lives!' director Questlove shares that making the film was both emotional and a "rollercoaster of storytelling" during his interview at THR's studio at Park City. Plus, producer Joseph Patel shares the hardest challenges they faced while making the film as well as Sly Stone's involvement.
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00:00I will say that probably In Time or Fresh is my favorite Sly song but it's
00:09it's hard to say because he has so many gems.
00:12You know my favorite.
00:13Oh God, why do you like Time for Living?
00:15No, not Time for Living, my favorite favorite is Family Affair.
00:18Oh, okay.
00:19We were editing Summer Soap and Sly and the Family Stone was who we were editing
00:30and in my head I was like wow, Sly doesn't know that ten days from this very performance
00:36his life is going to completely shift upside down and what happens in the next four years
00:43after Woodstock should be one for the history books.
00:47And I was just kind of saying like man, that's the documentary we really should be doing
00:52and literally 24 hours later out of nowhere, of all people Common calls me
00:58and is like yeah, Red and Variety, y'all doing that Black Woodstock film.
01:02Hey, you interested in Sly and the Family Stone?
01:06Because he's in that Woodstock film, right?
01:08And literally I thought like Siri was giving me away or whatever.
01:12I'm like I literally just said this to those guys yesterday that this is what we need to be doing.
01:17So the project found us.
01:20For this one, it's a roller coaster of storytelling as far as emotions are concerned.
01:27I think one of the biggest differences with this film versus Summer of Soul
01:31is it's not a particular time and place.
01:35It's one person's story across 50 years.
01:39And I think one of the hardest things that we had to do was like
01:43how much of the story do we put in the movie?
01:4850 years is a lot to cram into two hours.
01:51And so I think the challenge of making those choices is part of what the fun part was.
01:56Part of that acquiring his rights was his blessing, right?
02:00We couldn't interview him for this film because his health problems prevent him from
02:05and it just wouldn't be good to put him on camera.
02:08And that's kind of how the title came about, right?
02:11It's like whether he's here in physical form or not
02:14because we weren't sure if he would still be alive by the time we finished the movie.
02:18Whether he's here in physical form or not, his music lives on.
02:22His influence lives on.
02:25We showed him the film at the end as a courtesy.
02:28And through his manager and caretaker, she said that he loved it and was very proud.
02:34And then Thursday night we had our premiere here.
02:37And his three kids were here and they were seeing it for the first time.
02:41And that was such a special feeling.
02:43I don't know if you got a chance to talk to Navina after,
02:45but she was like, there's things in there that I didn't know about my father.
02:48For me, the best part of this process
02:51was going through the hundreds and hundreds of hours of reels of music,
02:57listening to alternate takes,
03:01listening to songs morph drastically into what we now know it as
03:08but starting off totally different,
03:11squabbles with the engineer,
03:14sly, playfully chastising band members.
03:19It was like a music freak's ideal fly-on-the-wall situation.
03:29So that said, I mean, that people know.
03:38I will say that probably, in time,
03:42On Fresh is my favorite sly song.
03:46But it's hard to say because he has so many gems.
03:49You know my favorite.
03:51Oh God, why are you like Time for Living?
03:53No, not Time for Living, my favorite favorite is Family Affair.
03:56Oh, okay.
03:57And what's funny is that song is so short.
04:00The version that's out in the world is like three minutes long.
04:03So when we were putting together the soundtrack,
04:06Amir did an edit of that song
04:08that sort of mimics a little bit the original version,
04:11which is like four minutes and 50 seconds.
04:14Almost five minutes.
04:16Yeah, that was pretty cool.
04:18How Amir and I even know each other is,
04:20I was a music journalist,
04:22and in 1996 I got assigned a story on The Roots
04:24that would be my first cover story.
04:26It was also the first time The Roots were on a cover
04:28of an American music magazine.
04:30I got flown to Philadelphia to interview them,
04:33and that's how we met.
04:35And we clicked right away.
04:37Because at his heart, Amir is a fan,
04:40but also I think deep down inside
04:42wanted to be a music journalist.
04:44He knew what pieces I had written,
04:46what reviews I had written,
04:48and for many years after that meeting,
04:50we would argue about rap records.
04:52And it's really kind of incredible
04:55to work with one of your musical heroes,
04:58but it's also really kind of incredible
05:00to see Amir on the other side now,
05:02being the storyteller and getting to sort of fulfill that dream.
05:05So that's a real joy for me.
05:07It's also us being in a place where
05:10we want to be the change that we want to see.
05:14And oftentimes you'll see,
05:17you know, like music documentaries,
05:20not to put anyone that's ever attempted,
05:23because there's some music documentaries
05:25that are life-changing,
05:27but more often than not, it's just, you know,
05:30typical talking head says,
05:32that's incredible, and you just, you know,
05:35teach people why something's incredible,
05:37put it in proper context.
05:39That's the fun part.
05:41I think that's the difference between
05:43our level of storytelling is
05:47you can immediately tell that music is like
05:50our wheelhouse, our passion.
05:52Yeah.
05:53And it shows.
05:54There's a scene in the movie
05:55where we break down dance to the music,
05:57and, you know, I think very intentionally
06:00we wanted to give the viewer and the audience
06:03the tools to see why that was such a,
06:05why it's such a catchy song,
06:07but also why it's very sophisticated
06:09and what Sly did that isn't easy to replicate.
06:13And having Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis
06:15and Niall Rogers who, you know,
06:17break down exactly the parts of the song
06:19and why it's catchy,
06:21like that kind of part of the storytelling
06:24is really exciting.
06:26And I think that's the thing,
06:28at least I think Amir would agree,
06:30is we take that technique,
06:33that'll probably be used in future documentaries we do.