"His eyes reveal a precociousness and a lucidity that's there, but his motor function doesn't exist," Joseph Patel said of Family Stone legend

The new documentary “Sly Lives, aka the Burden of Black Genius,” which focuses on the life and career of the brilliant but troubled musician Sly Stone and his group Sly and the Family Stone, is both a conventional documentary and an extremely unconventional one.

What is Black genius?” It’s a slightly sideways question that results in some blank looks, but the filmmaker’s point is this: The bar for Black artists is so high that only a genius can clear it. What’s more,

Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson says that telling Sly Stone's story with empathy was a way to open a conversation about Black artists and mental health.