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BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions Sydney Film Festival

8 June 2025

In the Playhouse

Cinema

United States | 2025 | English | Experimental | U18+ 

In this genre-defying work by renowned video artist Kahlil Joseph, Black history blends with Afro-futurism in a centuries-spanning hybrid. Sundance, Berlinale 2025.

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions combines footage from across a vast spectrum of thought, experience and influence, creating formally audacious montages that are thought-provoking and soul-stirring all at once

Siddhant Adlakha, Variety

Useful information:

Adapted from Kahlil Joseph’s highly acclaimed video art installation

Known for his collaborations with the likes of Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar, Joseph in his latest piece takes inspiration from the Encyclopedia Africana, a sprawling compendium of African history, art and culture. In an alternate future, a host of characters board the transatlantic liner The Nautica, a biennial at sea, where they’ll experience the star attraction, The Resonant Field. This sonic installation echoes the Black collective memory from the seabed below, memorialising lives lost to the Atlantic slave trade. Structured like a mixtape, Joseph’s episodic film layers archival material with social media and YouTube samples, weaving personal and political history. The bold vision of BLKNWS is cerebral, transgressive and even playful.

Presented by Sydney Opera House and Sydney Film Festival

Credits

Kahlil Joseph
Director

Onye Anyanwu, Kahlil Joseph, Amy Greenleaf, Nic Gonda
Producers

Kahlil Joseph, Saidiya Hartman, Irvin Hunt, Madebo Fatunde, Kristen Adele Calhoun, Onye Anyanwu
Screenwriters

Bradford Young
Cinematographer

Luke Lynch, Paul Rogers, Kahlil Joseph
Editors

Rich Spirit
Sales Agent

Cast

Shaunette Renée Wilson

Kaneza Schaal

Hope Giselle

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