On the Sly: In Search of the Family Stone is a documentary about Sly Stone, his absence from the music scene, and one man's quest to find out what happened to the artist. It is directed by Michael Rubenstone.

The film is about a quest to find the reclusive Sly.^[1] According to a 2005 Rolling Stone article by Andrew Paine Bradbury, Michael Rubenstone, Greg Zola, and indie One-Four Productions were in their second year of their project.^[2] In a Washington Post article, in reference to Stone's absence, one of the filmmakers compared him to J. D. Salinger.^[3] Through a period of about 12 years, band members, people in the music industry and other musicians were interviewed.^[4] One of the people to appear in the film is Cornel West. He talks about Stone's biggest hit songs and the effect they had on him.^[5]

After 13 years and going through 500 hours of footage the film was completed.^[6] It appears that the final product as well as the majority of the work, and final completion is due to the efforts by Michael Rubenstone with a new production company, Unreal films.^[7][8][9]