In the film "BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions," director Khalil Joseph innovatively reshapes the world through a Black viewpoint by artistically addressing the challenges of such an endeavour. The film, featured at the Sundance Film Festival following an editing dispute brouhaha, is a dynamic docu-fiction work that refuses to be boxed into a category. It unfurls, partially, onboard a futuristic, polygonal transatlantic vessel, traveling with a journalist (Shaunette Renee Wilson) and an arts scholar (Keneza Schaal, portraying a fictionalized form of real-life curator Funmilayo Akechukwu). This narrative approach, which frequently cycles back on itself, serves as a springboard for a wider, more obscure narrative exploring personal and political history.
Authored collaboratively by numerous artists and scholars, the film delves as much into Joseph's personal family saga as into the life and legacy of sociologist and Pan-African activist W. E. B. Du Bois. The script is academically intense, drawing inspiration from Du Bois' "Encyclopedia Africana" and showcasing clips from the 20th-century tied to people, places, artworks, and concepts from the compendium.
Among the featured elements is techno music, a genre with often overlooked Black roots, which Joseph masterfully employs to create rhythmic tempos that guide the editing process. This musical backbone enables "BLKNWS" to quickly establish numerous historical and cultural reference points. Using a make-believe Black news network as its window to the universe, Joseph reimagines stories of British monarchy's downfall, an institution known for its colonial expansion into much of Africa until the 20th century.
The film uses this satirical narrative to survey decolonial ideas and imageries. It demands proactive, focused viewership to pick up on all its fast-paced references, while its mesmerizing tapestry can also be overwhelming, an immersive experience for those who'd rather soak it all in without dissecting each reference. The film attempts to redefine the world where Blackness is the primary lens of comprehension. Furthermore, it exposes the omission of significant women liberationists from the "Encyclopedia Africana", acknowledging this discrepancy as its own flaw, and explores the concept of shared cultural language built on displacement.
As the denizens aboard the futuristic ship explore generational memories, Joseph weaves in dramatized portrayals of Du Bois. "BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions" integrates material from a wide gamut of thought, experience, and influence, crafting clever montages that incite contemplation and resonate emotionally. Joseph's debut feature film emerges as a mesmerizing narrative complexity, abundant with rhythm and energy, and intellectually robust as well as emotionally stirring.
