Questlove’s Earth, Wind & Fire Documentary Set To Open 2026 Tribeca Festival

Let’s groove with the opening-night film of the 25th anniversary Tribeca Festival.

The annual NYC event will kick off on June 3 with Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS That’s the Weight of the World, Summer of Soul Oscar winner Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s follow up to his 2025 doc on Sly Stone. Need more reasons to hit that screening? The iconic R&B band will perform afterward along with Questlove’s group The Roots at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan.

Earth, Wind & Fire examines the band’s lasting legacy, cultural influence and body of work, with rare access to archival materials and a focus on the vision of founder Maurice White. The group debuted in the early 1970s with a series of charting albums and a pair of Top 10 R&B hits before breaking out with the funky No. 1 pop hit “Shining Star” in 1975. It was the first of seven Top 10s including the chart-topping “Sing a Song” and classics “September” and “After the Love Has Gone.” EWF also scored six consecutive Top 10 LPs from 1975-81.

Produced by Questlove, Dave Sirulnick and Samantha Grogin, KB White and Arron Saxe, the film will debut in the United States on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max in 2026. Jon Kamen, Cheo Hodari Coker, Karla Zambrano, Zarah Zohlman, Shawn Gee, Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Amos Newman are the executive producers.

“Opening night is always a magical moment,” Tribeca Festival co-founder and co-chair Jane Rosenthal said in a statement. “This year, as we celebrate 25 years of the festival, it is especially meaningful. Tribeca was born in the wake of 9/11 with a belief: that storytellers have the power to bring communities together. For 25 years, we’ve seen artists, filmmakers, musicians, and audiences come together in New York City in ways that are inspiring, surprising, and deeply human. We are humbled by what’s been achieved and excited for the stories yet to come.”

Tribeca Festival’s silver anniversary edition runs June 3-14.