In the documentary film We Want the Funk, Award-winning film directors Stanley Nelson and Nicole London have done a wide and deep dive into the groove. They take the viewer on a journey with the creators, pioneers, innovators, and groundbreakers of the genre and explore how funk music affects humans in physical, emotional, and cerebral ways. It’s an irresistible and danceable expression of freedom.
The film explores the beginnings and growth of funk music and how it represented the socio-political movement of the time through music and lyrics that encouraged everyone to dance, and also to band together. The energy and excitement of funk music and its artists especially jump-started the youth to stand up and be proud. This unifying call influenced a generation raised on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement, and continues to be a source of strength for the generations that followed.
Nelson and London break it all down from that initial physical response to funk music that makes you want to move, to how the genre continues to elevate people on levels from the base (and bass) to the transcendent. The groove syncs up the rhythm, the music, and a core response to bring everyone together.
KALW’s Janice Lee spoke with Directors Nelson and London for more insights into the backbeat of this film.
Why a funk documentary? How did this come about?
Nelson: We had just finished a documentary on Miles Davis, Birth of the Cool. We were having a big dance party at Sundance, the music was really loud. A couple people who sponsored Birth of the Cool asked, “Hey – this is great! What do you want to do next?” The funk music was blaring and the only thing I could think of was “Funk!” And as I thought more about it, it felt like a really good idea – to take funk as something very serious in some ways, and also very fun and funny, and we hope that’s what the film is.
The film covers so much ground. In addition to conversations with artists, musicians and producers, you explore funk from a studied, almost academic direction, with the science of funk being one example. When starting work on the film, was this part of the initial plan?
Nelson: Plan?...Plan? (laughs)
London: We had an outline. It was a bulleted list of things - ideas we knew we wanted to explore. Of course, some things fell off by the time we finished the film. We did know we wanted to talk about "the One”, and about your brain on funk. There were these things we knew we wanted to develop, like gospel being one, another featuring James Brown. How they would connect together - that was the harder part. So we worked on making those individual parts work. Then tying it together [with] the music and work of the editors to make it come together and flow.
Was there anything you either wanted to include and didn’t get to or had to edit out due to time?
Nelson: I think one of the things we knew we didn’t want to do was to make it like an overview of funk. There was this group, and then there was that group, and then this group. So there were going to be things like your favorite group, whether it’s Cameo or somebody like that, it may be left out. We wanted to have the essentials of what funk is.
I don’t really think too much about what we couldn’t include. I think it’s more the pacing of the film and the drive of the film. We were screening the film in North Carolina, and my wife turned to me and said, “Y’know, this film is relentless.” I felt like we couldn’t do any more, we couldn’t keep it going another minute. It gets on that train track, and drives on that track, and Bam! That’s it.
London: Nor could we probably afford another minute (laughs). Literally not another minute.
The film focuses on the brilliance of many funk pioneers and innovators. Bassist Marcus Miller describes how when finding the right groove, they could stay on it for an hour and a half.
London: That was one of the things we did – we let the groove take us from one section of the film to another. The music literally bridges, so it’s like an unending groove from beginning to end.
Nelson: And we knew we wanted to talk about the idea of repetition – that funk is repetition.
I remember in high school somebody said to me “James Brown, he does the same thing over and over. And I said “yeah,that’s the point.” That’s part of what funk music is, it’s the repetition that gets you in the groove. Repetition is essential, we wanted to talk about that upfront and out front.
Guitarist Carlos Alomar also reveals that to keep that groove going, it’s not that simple. It’s deceptively simple.
London: Simplexity.
Nelson: That’s what [Scot Brown] in the film calls it - it’s simple and complex at the same time.
Marcus Miller expresses in the film: “There’s no sad funk song”
Nelson: We wanted to make a film that reflected that – so the film is very happy, very up. Every time we’ve shown it, the audiences have responded – they’re very happy at the end of the film.
London: They walk out dancing and smiling.
Nelson: – It’s a film that I love – I love to screen it. Maybe because we’ve done films like Jonestown, Attica, where maybe you’re not happy when the film ends. But this film, – you are.
You’ve worked together on many films, can you share how you work together, what that process is like?
London: This film is different from the Black Panthers, or Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. Those are things that have definite points in history. Miles Davis, he had a life, so there were definite points in history we need to follow. This film was much more nebulous in that way, and we knew we didn’t want to make it an encyclopedia of funk. We compiled a list of people that we’d at least want to start to speak with. To flesh that out, there’s a ton of research that goes into it. Then there’s the archival aspects of it, really diving into it. We had a super-long list of bands, we had thousands of footage assets, hardly any pictures,only maybe one or two images. It’s almost all footage from beginning to end.
What’s next – individually or working together?
Nelson: There’s a new film on Nova on PBS which premiered on April 30, Critical Condition, it’s about the inequalities in healthcare for African-Americans. I executive produced a film on Sun Ra titled Sun Ra: Do the Impossible, which just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
London: I have a film out now on Hazel Scott called The Disappearance of Hazel Scott for American Masters. It's streaming on the PBS platform, if you go to your local station, and check PBS Passport.
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Watch We Want the Funk - streaming now at PBS through 7/7/25. (Check PBS Passport after 7/7/25):
https://www.pbs.org/video/make-it-funky-xoqjb8/
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/we-want-the-funk/
Also available on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrgV35cBHVs
Firelight Films:
https://www.firelightfilms.tv/
