Space is the Place

Space is the Place

Release Date

1974

Director

  • John Coney

Cast

  • Sun Ra
  • Ray Johnson
  • Christopher Brooks
  • Barbara Delone

Sun Ra, avant-jazz musician and space-age prophet, lands his music-powered spaceship in Oakland to urge black society to pursue a utopian destiny with him beyond the stars.

A companion to his legendary album of the same name, SPACE IS THE PLACE features jazz iconoclast Sun Ra as an intergalactic traveler intent on resettling a distant planet with African Americans. Traveling back to 1940s Chicago and to 1970s Oakland, Sun Ra faces off against the nefarious Overseer and a team of evil NASA scientists. Mind-bending, visually dazzling, and infused with electrifying music, SPACE IS THE PLACE is a landmark early work of Afrofuturist cinema, combining sharp social critique with visionary metaphysical theories.

Past Programs

2019

Afrofuturism: Reimagining space and time

Philadelphia Film Society, Philadelphia, PA