Saturday, April 13, 2013

Saturday Short

Filmmaker and screenwriter Kahlil Joseph's remarkable Flying Lotus — Until the Quiet Comes, recipient in 2013 of a Sundance Film Festival Short Film Special Jury Award, is today's Saturday Short. Filmed in 35mm in Los Angeles's Nickerson Gardens housing projects in Watts, Until the Quiet Comes, a collaboration with the musicians Flying Lotus, is just 3:50 minutes long. Depicting a black youth breaking free of his gritty, impoverished, violence-ridden existence in America, the film is described as "deal[ing] with themes of violence, camaraderie and spirituality through the lens of magical realism." Caution: There is a graphic opening scene.



Read Duane Deterville's prescient essay "Kahlil Joseph's 'Until the Quiet Comes': The Afriscape Ghost Dance on Film" (Parts I and II) at SMOMA's blog Open Space. Deterville calls the film "stunningly brilliant"; its "oblique narrative", he says, is "informed by African philosophy". Also see Hilton Als's "Kahlil Joseph's Emotional Eye" at The New Yorker's blog Culture Desk.

Joseph is part of the What Matters Most film company.

Flying Lotus on FaceBook

3 comments:

D.M. SOLIS said...

This is impactful and harsh, yet sensitive. I never leave your blog without learning something, many things. I want to see Grand Canyon again after viewing the clip.

Thank you, peace,
Diane

the sad red earth said...

Extraordinary. It's film poetry. Very deserving of its Sundance award.

Laura said...

Haunting. I agree with D.M. I always learn when I come here.