BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
Kahlil Joseph / US, 2025 / 114 min.
A hypnotic essay film about Black culture, rhythmically composed like a music album. A wild, idea-rich montage of an Afrofuturist story, memes, and videos by Black artists and thinkers.
The starting point for this hypnotic essay film is the Encyclopedia Africana, started by W.E.B. DuBois, who sought to open up Black culture to a new generation. Kahlil Joseph has fond memories of the encyclopedia, thanks to his father, who gave it as a gift to his now-deceased brother.
In his pulsating debut film, Joseph—who previously collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé—jumps back and forth in time. With a rapid-fire montage of a fictional Afrofuturistic story, memes, TikTok clips, music, and videos, he builds on his 2019 art installation of the same name.
One of the central threads is the fictional story of a journalist reporting on a transatlantic Biennale on a futuristic cruise ship. He also interweaves clips from the fictional news channel BLKNWS with work by Black artists, thinkers, and stand-up comedians. Each clip carries equal weight, from memes to academic lectures. Joseph forges it all into a wild, energetic, idea-rich work of art, rhythmically composed like a music album and inspired by his personal family history.
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Details
Director
Kahlil Joseph
Production year
2025
Country
US
Length
114 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NONE
Format
DCP
Part of
IDFA 2025
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is once again bringing an exciting selection of the world’s best documentaries to Eye this year, from 13 through 23 November.
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