Dir: Justin Kurzel. Australia 2024. 105 min

This artful, devastatingly human documentary is an intimate portrait of iconic Australian musician and composer Warren Ellis.

Director Jason Kurzel paints a vivid portrait of Ellis – a member of rock groups The Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a doting son to his father and co-founder of a wildlife sanctuary in the forests of Sumatra.

Featuring music by the man himself  (reflecting the film’s richly emotional tone) and imbued with a natural candor, Ellis Park is a truly inspiring film.

“Ellis Park moves to a strange and interesting melody… swelling and shrinking, expanding and contracting, right in front of us.” – The Guardian

“It’s a profoundly moving film of an artist looking at another and uncovering the person behind the act. It left me an emotional wreck by the end.” – Toisto

 

 

*Contains flashing images, distressing scenes and animal cruelty.

Sly Lives! is a stunningly vibrant and empathetic tribute to the late, very great Sly Stone. The film chronicles his meteoric rise—forming one of the first racially and gender‑integrated bands during the heady civil‑rights era—and his unparalleled influence on funk, soul, psychedelic rock, and subsequent genres.

Featuring vivid archival performances and intimate interviews with surviving collaborators, family, and artists like André 3000, D’Angelo, Chaka Khan, Jimmy Jam, Q‑Tip, and George Clinton, the documentary probes the title’s central thesis: the unique “burden of Black genius”

Director Questlove skilfully interweaves musical breakdowns with civil‑rights history, revealing how systemic pressures shaped Stone’s struggles with addiction and reinvention. The result is an emotionally charged, intellectually rich portrait of a man who changed music—and the cost he paid for it.

“Pop has rarely been able to look away from Sly Stone … his meteoric rise eventually led to a long, slow comedown…” – The Guardian