28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Siren Test
The section dedicated to music/sound in contemporary progressive cinematography.
Afrofuturism
Since the 1960s, the radical imagination of black Americans has led to a blending of mysticism, science fiction, and progressive music in the name of dreaming of a more just society. The film Sun Ra: Joyful Noise is a portrait of the legendary bandleader Sun Ra and his intergalactic orchestra; another other contexts of Afrofuturism will be presented in a seminar with film excerpts.
![CAN and Me](/media/thumbs/films/thumb_400x280_931698-1374272.jpeg?v=)
CAN and Me
Michael P. Aust, Tessa Knapp
Germany / 2022 / 85 min.
section: Siren Test
Czech Premiere
Narrated by Irmin Schmidt, a member of krautrock legends Can, the film touches on a number of stories: not just the band that influenced the development of experimental rock and the gravitation towards electronic music. The experience of the Nazi era commanded post-1945 Germany to reject the music of romantic and patriotic pathos so exploited by nationalism. It had to start again: but did anyone know that the research into electronic technologies was preparing a new era of club music, of media sound, of the audiovisual world? Schmidt also talks about his solo work, and there is no shortage of statements by great musical figures.
![noimage](/images/film2.jpg)
Pavel Klusák: Afrofuturism, Music and Film
90 min.
section: Siren Test
The guided screening showcases the aesthetics and ideas of Afrofuturism, according to which African-Americans will find justice only in a diaspora beyond planet Earth. The great luminaries of the past (Sun Ra, Miles Davis) are succeeded today by others, in both a natural transformation and a deliberate reference to this blending of civil defiance, science fiction, mysticism and music (Janelle Monáe, Flying Lotus, Ibeyi). From the classic sci-fi Space is the Place to AV works by contemporary musicians developing new themes.
![STAND BY FOR FAILURE: A NEGATIVLAND DOCUMENTARY](/media/thumbs/films/thumb_400x280_927482-1359577.jpeg?v=)
STAND BY FOR FAILURE: A NEGATIVLAND DOCUMENTARY
Ryan Worsley
United States / 2022 / 99 min.
section: Siren Test
Czech Premiere
A look at 40 years of subversive work by the American collective Negativland. Would you go to jail for your work? They say they never had a hit single, but they had a hit lawsuit. Negativland's media collages, which predated the web-sharing era from the late 1970s onwards, resulted in a single called U2. The group documented the court-imposed punishment in such a way as to create a spectacular artefact, and a narrative about the moral standards around copyright and intellectual property. “Media is coming into our homes: its images and sounds flow into our living rooms. So I consider them mine – and I want the right to dispose of them,” says Negativland member Don Joyce.
![Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise](/media/thumbs/films/thumb_400x280_944526-1361997.jpeg?v=)
Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise
Robert Mugge
United States / 1980 / 60 min.
section: Siren Test
Czech Premiere
Jazz bandleader and visionary Sun Ra claimed to have been born on Saturn: a prophet from the stars, he found himself on Earth with a mission to lead his black brothers and sisters out of a racist society and into a better place. Sun Ra and his unique community, an “inter-galactic” orchestra with exceptional music, costumes and philosophy, are the subject of a classic documentary made in France in 1980. “If you play a mistake in rehearsal, it changes the universe.” Featured under the theme of Afrofuturism and Cinema.