BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions

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.