IN CINEMA

Under the Influence of Muyassar Kurdi
A SPACE EXODUS + NEPTUNE FROST
Tickets: $15 General Admission / $7 Reduced Price 
Friday, September 13th at 7PM

In the spirit of resistance, and collective liberation both films A SPACE EXODUS and NEPTUNE FROST reclaim the body and indigenous narrative. These surreal works embrace the idea of a future without a colonizer, and reject all authority. As destructive outside forces attempt to rule and exploit every aspect of our lives, we are reminded that imagination is the ultimate liberation.

and when we speak we are afraid

our words will not be heard

nor welcomed

but when we are silent

we are still afraid

So it is better to speak

remembering

we were never meant to survive

– Audre Lorde

I feel a deep connection between these films, and it is an honor to present them alongside each other. These revolutionary works empower me while reminding me of oneness and unity especially during the ongoing genocide in Falastin where we are witnessing the patriarchal capitalist machine crumble right before our eyes. Our struggles are interconnected. If that feeling could be a song it would be “Going Home” by Alice Coltrane. There is a feeling of hope, and a new world on the horizon for anyone who dares to dream of a future. – Muyassar Kurdi

A SPACE EXODUS
Larissa Sansour, 2008, 5 min.

The film follows the artist herself onto a phantasmagoric journey through the universe echoing Stanley Kubrick's thematic concerns for human evolution, progress and technology. However, in her film, Sansour posits the idea of a first Palestinian into space, and, referencing Armstrong's moon landing, she interprets this theoretical gesture as "a small step for a Palestinian, a giant leap for mankind."

NEPTUNE FROST
Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman, 2022, 105 min.

Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where 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. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – NEPTUNE FROST is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends.

With introduction by curator, Muyassar Kurdi!