Release Date: June 6,2022
The Nightlight is Proudly Bringing Afrofuturist Sci-Fi Musical NEPTUNE FROST to Akron
Akron, Ohio 6/6/2022 – The Nightlight will be hosting the critically acclaimed Neptune Frost for one week beginning June 10th. Showtimes and tickets are available at nightlightcinema.com.
Directed by: Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman
Written and Composed By: Saul Williams
Executive Produced by: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Stephen Hendel
What does technological progress look like to those exploited to achieve it?
Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people.
When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends.
Neptune Frost began as a graphic novel, then as a musical, then as three albums produced by Williams under the MartyrLoserKing handle. The film boasts Lin-Manuel Miranda and Fela! producer Stephen Hendel as executive producers. It is also the first narrative feature from Knitting Factory Entertainment, best known for its legendary genre-smashing New York City concert venue and avant-garde record label.
In Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English with English Subtitles
View the Trailer for the film at: Neptune Frost – Official Trailer
Press:
Official Selection: Cannes Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, New York Film Festival
“pure cinematic power… requires the largest screen possible” – The Hollywood Reporter
“A work of cinema that makes all other contemporary films seem quaint. Groundbreaking... utterly unprecedented.” – MUBI Notebook
“An exciting musical. Its ideas are playful as well as passionate. A polyrhythmic experience, aligned to Black film storytelling traditions.” – The Playlist
“A gorgeous, unclassifiable hacker love story set against the backdrop of a dreamlike Rwanda, it conjures a mythical sense of postmodern identity in poetic sci-fi terms that would make Octavia Butler proud.” – IndieWire
https://www.vulture.com/2022/
https://www.rogerebert.com/