Documentary filmmaker, Stanley Nelson, whose current documentary “Attica” is shortlisted for an Academy Award has announced that his production company Firelight Films is developing a new documentary about the experimental jazz musician Sun Ra.
The film, entitled “Sun Ra and the Rise of Afrofuturism,” will feature the only surviving member of the original Sun Ra Arkestra, 98-year-old Marshall Allen who is set to perform at Carnegie Hall’s Afrofuturism city-wide event series in New York City with the current Arkestra lineup.
Sun Ra is hailed to be one of the early creators within the genre of Afrofuturism.
This documentary is very timely as the world begins to recognize the importance and poignancy of Black historical figures who have been largely left out of the Western music and arts canon. This is largely due to the post-George Floyd international awakening toward racial justice and the newfound desire to reexamine and update historical documentation that includes Black innovators and visionaries.
“Without Sun Ra, it is hard to understand George Clinton, Erykah Badu, Janelle Monáe, Ras G, Kamasi Washington, Shabaka Hutchings, Moor Mother, Black Panther, Lovecraft Country, [or] Afrofuturism itself,” expressed Nelson. “Ra was part mystic, genius, showman and possibly alien. He was one of the most prolific, creative and visionary musicians the world has ever known.”
The Criterion Channel has released a series, “Black History Rising: Documentaries by Stanley Nelson,” featuring five of his films, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords,” “A Place of Our Own,” “Freedom Summer,” “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” and “Tell Them We Are Rising.