Join WTTW, Doc10/Docs Across Chicago and Independent Lens for a free screening and discussion of WE WANT THE FUNK at the Chicago Cultural Center.

So named for the iconic George Clinton song, WE WANT THE FUNK! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning its African and early jazz roots, to the early work of James Brown and the rise of ParliamentFunkadelic and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, through its influences today on both new wave and hip-hop. The film also explores the symbiotic relationship between the explosion of funk music and the political and racial dynamics coming out of the post-Civil Rights Movement and 1970s inner-city America. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Attica, Miles Davis: Birth of Cool), and co-directed and produced by Nicole London, the film is also a joyous andbody-moving celebration of Black culture and the spirit of resistance. As George Clinton says in the film, “You’re free of all the rules and you just let go and let the groove take over.”

Following the film, there will be a conversation with composer, podcaster, and performer Lloyd Brodnax King and vocalist Julio Davis, a member of the J. Davis Trio.