hacking time mines

Saul William’s fan­tas­tic musi­cal fea­ture Nep­tune Frost (2022), sets the tone for the coali­tion series “Hack­ing Time Mines”. In the Afro­fu­tur­is­tic sci-fi musi­cal, the myth­i­cal encounter of a miner and the inter­sex Nep­tune sparks a hacker com­mu­ni­ty’s rebel­lion against neo-colo­nial­ism and gender restric­tions. Nep­tune Frost is a thrilling explo­ration of queer­ness, romance, col­lec­tive resis­tance and the role of the medium of music within it. Its non-linear nar­ra­tive modes, blur­ring the lines between dreams and real­i­ty, in-between the past, the present and the future, make it a vivid exam­ple of cycli­cal tem­po­ral­i­ty that is rooted in African and Afro-dias­poric cosmologies. There are many genealog­i­cal traces to Afro­fu­tur­ist vision­ary Sun Ra’s bril­liant sci-fi movie Space is the Place (1973). Space is the Place looks out­ward, beyond the earth­ly con­fines, and takes music as a vehi­cle for space travel, as well as a hacker’s device, to decode and recode the dom­i­nant scripts of real­i­ty. Sun Ra sees him­self, as an African Amer­i­can, as being left out of Euro­cen­tric his­to­ry books – as his story – and is rather inter­est­ed in mys­tery that he … read more

LOBI KUNA

Matthias De Groof
Belgium, Congo 2018 | 46 Min. | engl. subtitled

Sun, 21-May-23 04:30 PM
Q&A via Zoom with:
Matthias De Groof, Mehkar Azari Kiyoso
In the middle of a photo ses­sion in the Royal Museum for Cen­tral Africa in Bel­gium, a pho­tog­ra­ph­er is dis­turbed by the images cap­tured, macabre mem­o­ries, a mau­soleum of his … read more

MULIKA

Maisha Maene
Congo 2022 | 14 Min. | engl. subtitled

Sun, 21-May-23 04:30 PM
Q&A with:
Maisha Maene

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. 

This film will be screened simul­ta­ne­ous­ly at Unseen as part of our #Junction_Nairobi, fol­lowed by a shared discussion.

Maisha Maene is a Con­golese screen­writer and direc­tor based in Goma, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Repub­lic of the Congo. As an Afro­fu­tur­ist artist, he works on issues of human rights and the envi­ron­ment and seeks to recon­struct the frag­ment­ed his­to­ry of his coun­try. 

NEPTUNE FROST

Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams
Rwanda, USA 2021 | 105 Min. | engl. subtitled

Sat, 20-May-23 03:00 PM
Q&A with:
Maisha Maene, Pius Vögele (Uni Basel)
Already hailed as a future cult film, this lav­ish­ly dec­o­rat­ed musi­cal impress­es with its rich­ness of asso­ci­a­tions. In a fan­tas­tic vision of the future, many con­tem­po­rary issues appear bun­dled and … read more

PUMZI

Wanuri Kahiu
Kenya 2009 | 21 Min. | engl. subtitled

Sun, 21-May-23 04:30 PM
The film is set in the East African region, 35 years after World War III, in a world with no water and toxic soil. The story is told through the … read more

SPACE IS THE PLACE

John Coney
USA 1974 | 85 Min. | engl. subtitled

Fri, 19-May-23 10:00 PM
Q&A with:
Pius Vögele
Jazz legend Sun Ra plays with sev­er­al nar­ra­tive levels in this multi-lay­ered futur­is­tic sce­nario. First, the film is based on his music and the con­cept album of the same name. … read more

TERRA MATER

Kantarama Gahigiri
Rwanda, Switzerland 2019 | 10 Min. | engl. subtitled

Sat, 20-May-23 03:00 PM
Q&A with:
Cheryl Isheja (via zoom), Kantarama Gahigiri (via zoom), Pius Vögele (Uni Basel)
There she stands, con­fi­dent­ly, like a god­dess of tech­no­log­i­cal junk, sur­round­ed by end­less moun­tains of rub­bish, plas­tic, stench and rare earths. An angry appeal to the world to take respon­si­bil­i­ty … read more