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Tribeca Festival: Questlove’s Earth, Wind & Fire Docu Honors the Underrated Band

Questlove’s documentary, "Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs That’s the Weight of the World)," opened the Tribeca Festival with a thrilling and haunting portrait of the band and Maurice White, securing their rightful place in pop histor

Variety Music·Jun 4, 2026·via Variety Music

Tribeca Festival: Questlove’s Earth, Wind & Fire Docu Honors the Underrated Band

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Jun 3, 2026 6:59pm PT

‘Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs That’s the Weight of the World)’ Review: The Tribeca Festival Kicks Off with Questlove’s Indelible Portrait of the Great but Underrated EWF

In his third documentary outing, the director of "Summer of Soul" and "Sly Lives!" captures Earth, Wind & Fire's joy by putting us right inside the music.

By Owen Gleiberman

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Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

@OwenGleiberman

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From the moment he unleashed “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised),” it was clear that Ahmir “ Questlove ” Thompson was a born documentary filmmaker. But there’s a special quality to Questlove’s music films that only emerged fully in his second one, “Sly Lives! (aka the Burden of Black Genius).” And I felt it even more stirringly in “Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs That’s the Weight of the World),” the Questlove jawn that opened the Tribeca Festival tonight on a note of rousingly nostalgic but timeless joy.