An exploration – from Jean-Michel Basquiat to Grace Jones – of how black artists use the sci-fi genre to examine black history and imagine new, alternative futures.
Social & External
Himself
Robert Mugge filmed jazz great Sun Ra on location in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 and 1980. The resulting 60-minute film includes multiple public and private performances, poetry readings, a band rehearsal, interviews, and extensive improvisations. Transferred to HD from the original 16mm film and lovingly restored for the best possible viewing experience.
A documentary on funk and P-funk and the bands and artists that made it all happen: James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Maurice White and his Earth Wind & Fire, Average White Band, Kool & The Gang and lots more. It tells the story of black American music and how it evolved from funk to more main stream to disco to hiphop to contemporary R 'n B and its impact on society. Music and live footage from the bands, interviews with artists and band members of Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, George Clinton and lots more.
Afrofuturism and carnival as resistance at the Junkanoo festival in the Bahamas, from Aesthetica Art Prize winner Rhea Storr.
A short documentary that emerge at the center of round table debate, participating in it there's three students from the Superior School of Arts and Design, Caldas da Rainha - Portugal. This conversation go along with a video essay about Afrofuturism and Pop Culture. Also, during the debate, an interview with another student gives some real example of how afrofuturism can be applied when it comes to in taking control of the colonial narratives into a black person perspective.
Sun Ra and his Solar Myth Arkestra return to Earth after several years in space. Ra proclaims himself "the alter-destiny", meets with inner-city youths and battles with the devil himself to save the black race.
This 3D animated short film in the Afrofuturist genre explores the topics of AI and bias. In a distant future, an artificial intelligence named Aero is inaugurated as the world's first AI ruler. But Aero soon learns that important worldviews are missing from her databank, including the experiences of the historically marginalized and oppressed.
In the hilltops of Burundi, a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry.
"Outside the Aquarium" is the new exhibition of protagonist Jonas. In his paintings he portrays his experiences as a black immigrant and part of the LGBT Community expressing his fears, loneliness and dreams for the future.
Harlem Fragments is an Afro-futurist scrapbook storytelling of a Harlem Black family's beautiful destruction during the 2008 recession. A natural disaster so mesmerizing you can't look away from the tragedy. Based on true events- The film explores the haunting societal pressures of achieving the Black American dream, told in the POV of 10 year old TJ revisiting his family's home that's up for sale. By empowering this Black boy in this film with the agency to imagine, TJ, through his own journey, finds a way to process and come to terms with his family's divorce. It's important for every Black child out there enduring the same foreign emotions to know that it's okay to feel them, and affirm that there is a future trajectory forward out of the initial destruction.
A closeted college student and her optimistic girlfriend are transported to an alternate universe led by a mystical house mother who runs a pride boot camp.
An alien couple named Addem and Efa live on Earth as human beings in order to determine if it has proper living conditions for their race. They are suddenly called back to their mothership and must face a disgruntled Special Agent and growing, uncontrollable human urges to stay on Earth before it's too late to return.
When culture vultures apply for citizenship on a new planet colonized by Black people, three judges must decide how to deal with folks who want everything but the burden.
Zari and Aina are a young couple, orbiting each other but struggling to connect. We first see each of them in their own element: Zari painting to finish a piece for a gallery opening, and Aina coding her own video game designed to increase self-awareness. When Aina makes an effort to connect and Zari shuts her out again, Aina is triggered to send her girlfriend into the video game. In the game, Zari meets different versions of herself and her ego's desires. Ultimately, she has to decide what she's willing to let go of in order to advance to the next level. When the game malfunctions, Aina launches her back into reality and they finally confront each other.
A collectively made filmic opera in 35 parts. The Black and predominantly queer art collective, an evolving line up of poets and artists from across the world, abstracts and reimagines opera in any traditional conception. Set to hip-hop, blues, noise, R&B and electronica, the piece uses the voice (chanting, singing, screaming; written by poet and activist Dawn Lundy Martin) as its primary tool, verbalising centuries of alienation, vulnerability and protest in the global African diaspora through its disruptive libretto.
A surreal post-apocalyptic drama by Patrick Kennelly inspired by the clipping. album “Splendor & Misery”
In a dystopian future where people live nocturnally to avoid the harmful rays of the sun, a young black girl unravels the lie that has kept her and her sister in the dark.
In a world in collapse, when the present seems unbearable and the future nonexistent, Anteliza, a young black woman about to leave school, receives a note that leads her down unlikely paths. Between desires, pressures, and possibilities, she will be confronted with a free reality she has always dreamed of. But what is freedom when it demands that you abandon who you are?
An 'afronaut' emerges from the wreckage of a spaceship in the volcanic crater of Mount Nyiragongo. As he descends into the city below, encountering the people of present-day Goma, he begins to understand what he must do to change the future for his people.
A young black man wakes up chained in a dark room and is hypnotized by the static of a TV.
The disillusioned sea, longing to fade away, sends out a call to find its lost love..
Ava, an award-winning chef at a big-city restaurant, has lost her spark. Her boss sends her out to find herself to save her menu and her job. She returns home and finds little to inspire her, but when she reunites with her childhood friend Logan, Ava has to get her head out of the clouds and her foot out of her mouth to rediscover her passion for food.
Two teenagers are playing by night in a dirty parking lot. After they are driving on an empty road, they start to tease each other on the way to the sea, but they seem to be too young to drive and the road is a bit strange.
After the death of their abusive father, two estranged twin brothers must reunite and sell off his property.
The year is 2025, 10 years after the fight against Z. The ToQgers are all grown up and have now entered life. But one day, the Shadow Line reappears and the fight must resume. Right and his friends try to repel them but they can’t transform because they lack imagination. Fortunately for them, a mysterious purple warrior appears to save them. Will they be able to defeat the Evil Army Shadow Line once and for all? Will they find the ultimate imagination?
Delves deep into the anxiety, thrill and uncertainty of six aspiring animation artists as they are plunged into the twelve-week trial-by-fire that is the NFB's Hothouse for animation filmmakers.
Suppressed memories reach a boiling point. An animated tale of longing. “The Experimental section saw Non Films’ Dull Hope scoop the premier place as category winner. Half animation and half movie footage, this hybrid resonated very much with the judging panel who deemed it to be a sad dirge on personal memories and heartbreak.” – The Guardian Directed & Animated by Brian Ratigan Music & Sound Design by Nick Punch (R.I.P.) Produced by Non Films
A ring veteran turns a Texas tenderfoot into a winning fighter.
Eight demon swordsmen and their gang have spread menace across many sword teaching schools. The students seek the help of Fang who alone can combat them. Will Fang take up the challenge.
About a notorious Connecticut convicted rapist.
A new father going through a marital separation joins a dating app and matches with a beautiful but mysterious young woman... whose powers of seduction and manipulation entangle him in a mystery more horrifying than he could have ever imagined.
The day before her mother's memorial, Caroline realizes she has lost her mother's ashes. With no time left and fear of causing her sister Josephine further grief, Caroline must decide what to do.
After a mass shooting at a police funeral, reclusive ex-cop Gannon finds himself unwittingly forced out of retirement when he realizes that the killer belongs to the same militia he joined after quitting the force. Understanding that the shooting could set off a chain reaction of copycat violence across the country, Gannon quarantines his fellow militiamen in the remote lumber mill they call their headquarters. There, he sets about a series of grueling interrogations, intent on ferreting out the killer and turning him over to the authorities to prevent further bloodshed.
A stolen computer disk contains the location of a hidden tresaure trove. It's up to the sexy ladies of LETHAL (Legion to Ensure Total Harmony and Law) to find the treasure before the bad guys do.
The characters receive an email from Ovan requesting them to go to Δ Hidden Forbidden Festival where a mysterious summer festival is set up. There they encounter an AIDA Chim Chim who wishes to peacefully co-exist with the players of The World. It then transforms into the word "Returner", which Haseo assumes it to mean that Ovan will return to The World.
Aoi Nishimori and Shūsei Kugayama are in love and they begin to live together secretly. Suddenly, Shūsei's cousin, Reon Kugayama, comes to them. Their secret is discovered by Reon. Now, Aoi, Shūsei, and Reon begin to live together.
A true-crime comedy exploring a failed music festival turned internet meme at the nexus of social media influence, late-stage capitalism, and morality in the post-truth era.
An Interpol agent hunting the head of a global crime syndicate tracks his target to Las Vegas, but when the criminal organization kills his wife and daughter, he goes above the law to get his revenge.