Overview
- The documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was followed by a live miniset at New York’s Beacon Theatre on Wednesday featuring surviving members Verdine White, Philip Bailey and Ralph Johnson performing with Questlove and The Roots.
- HBO will broadcast and stream the film on June 7, giving a wide audience access to the two-hour portrait that debuted in New York.
- Questlove’s film centers Maurice White’s life and ambitions while documenting allegations that he denied royalties, underpaid bandmates and abruptly dissolved the group in 1984.
- Critics praised the film’s use of newly unearthed archival footage and tight editing, and it features high-profile commentators including Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, H.E.R., Flea, Anderson .Paak and Barack and Michelle Obama.
- The documentary balances the band’s huge commercial success—cited as more than 100 million records sold and six Grammys—with the human cost of White’s leadership, showing how financial strain and personal conflicts left members struggling after the split.