{"id":952541,"date":"2025-12-08T11:24:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=952541"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:24:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:24:00","slug":"why-kahlil-josephs-debut-feature-film-is-a-must-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=952541","title":{"rendered":"Why Kahlil Joseph\u2019s debut feature film is a must-see"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Filmmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/kahlil-joseph\">Kahlil Joseph<\/a>\u2019s debut feature film <\/span><em><span>BLKNWS<\/span><\/em><span>: <\/span><em><span>Terms &amp; Conditions<\/span><\/em><span> defies categorisation. At once a work of documentary and speculative fiction, it is a wholly original cinematic work that spans multiple dimensions. A spaceship that melts time, the film traverses the past, present, and future. We travel from Philadelphia in the late 1800s to Ghana in the 1960s. We find ourselves aboard the Nautica, an ocean liner making its way across the Atlantic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The film <span>expands on a two-channel video art installation \u2014 also titled <\/span><em><span>BLKNWS <\/span><\/em><span>\u2014 that Joseph describes as \u201cconceptual journalism.\u201d <\/span><em><span>BLKNWS<\/span><\/em><span> weaves together a wide range of material, from academic lectures to archival footage and internet memes. This free-form juxtaposition results in an astonishing viewing experience that unsettles our assumptions of what counts as \u201cnews.\u201d Rooted in the Black radical tradition and created in response to the relentless stream of reporting that dehumanises Black life, <\/span><em><span>BLKNWS<\/span><\/em><span> offers a deceptively simple proposition: what if news encompassed anything from the past or present, as long as it was revelatory?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Joseph gained prominence by directing short films for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/kendrick-lamar\">Kendrick Lamar<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/fka-twigs\">FKA twigs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/sampha\">Sampha<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/flying-lotus\">Flying Lotus<\/a>. He collaborated with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/beyonce\">Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> on the visual accompaniment to <em>Lemonade<\/em>. His approach to filmmaking is rooted in an unabashed love of and appreciation for Blackness in its myriad forms. I first encountered his work as a film student. The language of his films immediately resonated, informing the films I\u2019d go on to make. Flash forward a few years, and I found myself on the phone with Joseph. He needed a writer\u2019s assistant. Was I interested?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"xopF882eBVU\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xopF882eBVU\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>We worked out of the Underground Museum, started by Joseph\u2019s late brother, the remarkable painter Noah Davis, and his widow and fellow artist Karon. What was initially an assistant role turned into something greater, and I ended up as a writer on the film. The process was unorthodox. Instead of one director, there were four: Garrett Bradley, Raven Jackson, Arthur Jafa, and Kaneza Schaal. Instead of one DP, two: Bradford Young and Jomo Fray. Kahlil invited artists, writers, and scholars to collaborate with us as we developed ideas for the film. It never felt like it was solely Joseph\u2019s vision; <\/span><em><span>BLKNWS<\/span><\/em><span> belonged to everyone involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To celebrate the film\u2019s release, I spoke with Joseph, Kaneza Schaal, Raven Jackson, producer Onye Anyanwu, writer Madebo Fatunde, and editor Luke Lynch about the process of making the film.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kahlil, to be someone making their first feature and say, <span>\u2018<\/span>I<span>\u2019<\/span>m going to let all these people come in and have all these different voices in the room<span>\u2019<\/span> is a pretty radical move. It says a lot about your philosophy around filmmaking. Why did you want to approach your first film in that way?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kahlil Joseph: <\/strong><span>BLKNWS, as an artwork, was inherently a cacophony of different perspectives, voices, and edits. My job always was more like an editor-in-chief\u2019s role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Raven Jackson: <\/strong><span>Khalil is such a generous collaborator. It taught me about my own work. It\u2019s led me to think a lot about how I collaborate. My intention wasn\u2019t to try to imitate Khalil. It was to do what moves me. I find that really inspiring.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"f1312339-1932-4256-bf41-b3a900ceae12\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1920\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/2\/1432422.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.78\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"blknws_tt_still5\" class=\"img\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1432422.jpg\" width=\"1920\" title=\"1432422\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">BLKNWS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span><strong>Kaneza, what was it like directing for film for the first time, especially given the untraditional process?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kaneza Schaal: <\/strong><span>A stunning thing about the work is this reminder that singularity of vision and porous collaboration are not in opposition. They are, in fact, intrinsically connected. This project is profound evidence of that. People in film like to lie about it. In theatre and opera, it\u2019s harder for us to lie to ourselves and erase all the labour around us. One of the radical things about this project is that it\u2019s not erasing that labour. That\u2019s been a real affirmation to me in my directing practice, to remember that singularity of vision and deep, porous, open collaboration are intrinsically connected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kahlil Joseph: <\/strong><span>I\u2019ve learned that jazz drummers are the most sophisticated drummers. Luke, it feels like what you\u2019re doing with editing is equivalent to jazz drumming.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Luke Lynch: <\/strong><span>There was certainly a time when I felt like I was playing jazz. There would be moments where I fell into the pocket and executed something on a stream-of-consciousness level that I couldn\u2019t ever write or do on purpose outside of that moment. That\u2019s what the movie demanded. <\/span>When the reviews came out, the level of how much everyone got it on a single screening in a theatre, without the ability to rewind, really blew my mind.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Madebo Fatunde: <\/strong><span><em>BLKNWS<\/em> at once demands your attention and can exist as second-screen viewing very easily. That is an ongoing revelation to me: how much trust Kahlil has placed in viewers. How well they\u2019ve rewarded that trust encourages me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Luke Lynch: There are<\/strong><span>\u00a0so many times in the artwork where we would feel, \u2018Of course it works. Of course it makes sense and exists the way it does,\u2019 But the journey is crazy. To try to do anything different is incredibly challenging. In the early iterations, the only direction I got was, \u2018What is sampling in the context of a film?\u2019 We did that for months, experimenting with that idea without particular focus on the subjects and the script.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>Poetry is not trendy. Cinema can feel trendy. For a movie to age well is a huge accomplishment<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Kahlil Joseph: <\/strong><span>When someone\u2019s considered a poet at what they do, it\u2019s the highest form of compliment. What does it mean, in filmmaking, to be a poet? I aspire to that level of artistry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Raven Jackson: <\/strong><span>The word that comes to mind is fluidness. An openness to surprises and what\u2019s present.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Madebo Fatunde: <\/strong><span>One of the things that constantly strikes me about poetry is how precisely you have to think about the thing before or as you\u2019re laying it down. Part of the intention that people bring to poetry is a deep understanding of the thing they\u2019re looking at, even if that thing is a mystery. The form of the line, where it\u2019s cut, is a very natural echo with film.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The poet Peter Gizzi [talks] about how poets are like the material scientists of the language arts. There\u2019s an aspect of that to film. Your understanding of form demands a lot of you. <em>BLKNWS <\/em>brings some of that to Black artistic and radical traditions, and to cinema.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kahlil Joseph: <\/strong><span>Poetry is not trendy. Cinema can feel trendy. For a movie to age well is a huge accomplishment. Sometimes the traditional forms of media are so heavy, slow, and calculated that the public is like, \u2018We\u2019re so far past this.\u2019 A more poetic approach to the medium might have a more lasting effect. So if people don\u2019t \u2018get\u2019 it right now, I hope that there\u2019s time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Luke Lynch: <\/strong><span>There\u2019s the idea of [<em>BLKNWS<\/em>] being put together like an album. It demands a certain amount from you to glean information from it. At the same time, if you do treat or experience it like [an album], it demands a lot less of you; you can try not to understand it. If you experience this movie passively, without trying very hard, it can have an equal impact on your thought process or emotions. If a traditional film is literature, this kind of filmmaking is poetry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Kahlil Joseph: <\/strong><span>Onye, you got your degree in producing. A degree doesn&#8217;t prepare you for a project like this, does it?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"8bc33c6c-df93-49d4-b7a7-b3a900ced7e6\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/2000\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/2\/1432423.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.78\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Sequence 01_2E00_02_04_05_2EStill011\" class=\"img\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1432423.jpg\" width=\"2560\" title=\"1432423\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"credit\">BLKNWS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><strong>Onye <span>Anyanwu<\/span>: <\/strong><span>Filmmaking is part artistry, part military. There are certain systems that are in place that help everyone understand what their role is. I love having particular systems to fall back on. But especially [with] films like this, you have to be flexible and be a producer who can pivot and know when it\u2019s safe to. There are many variables, especially with so many different types of artists involved. You can\u2019t be dogmatic in terms of what you\u2019re doing, because someone might have a very different approach. We had scripts as guidelines. That\u2019s what the writer\u2019s room was about. That was a very different way of making a film. Writer\u2019s rooms are technically for TV shows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When we were doing this film, Grace Wales Bonner \u2014 who did the costumes for the<\/span><span>Nautica \u2014 had her own fashion line. Now, she\u2019s the head of Herm\u00e8s. Garrett Bradley won the MacArthur Grant. We were all doing our thing and inspiring each other. We\u2019re so fortunate to have [had] an opportunity to allow artists and filmmakers to really do their thing. I\u2019m happy we have this particular time capsule of all of us at that time. I can\u2019t wait to see what everyone does next. It\u2019s going to be pretty impressive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Luke Lynch: <\/strong><span>A lot of us are Hollywood-adjacent. There\u2019s been some influence, but to a large extent, there\u2019s been a carving of our own path. It\u2019s almost willful ignorance. Like, \u2018It doesn\u2019t matter how they do it. Let\u2019s do it how we want to do it.\u2019 There\u2019s been a lot of that in my and Khalil\u2019s approach and process. The ultimate intent is to make the best possible thing on the screen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Onye <span>Anyanwu<\/span>: <\/strong><span>A big part of the role of a producer is to protect the work. Sometimes that\u2019s protecting the work from the very people creating it. I learned a lot. We started out as a studio film, and within that structure, it was very challenging to keep the petals on the rose, to make sure that the environment was still intact so everyone could do their thing. It\u2019s not from ill intentions from anyone involved on the studio level. It\u2019s just that the framework itself is not a conductor of creativity. It\u2019s a conductor of something else, so you have to push back. You have to fight. You have to be the person who\u2019s not liked in the room. When you do that, it\u2019s harder for everybody at some point. But you have to keep fighting for what you believe in. You win some battles. You lose some. But at the end of the day, it\u2019s worth fighting for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>BLKNWS: Terms &amp; Conditions<em> is out now.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Source URL: https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/film-tv\/article\/69216\/1\/blknws-terms-conditions-veritable-tour-de-force-from-kahlil-joseph-black-culture<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Filmmaker Kahlil Joseph\u2019s debut feature film BLKNWS: Terms &amp; Conditions defies categorisation. At once a work of documentary and speculative fiction, it is a wholly original cinematic work that spans multiple dimensions. A spaceship that melts time, the film traverses the past, present, and future. We travel from Philadelphia in the late 1800s to Ghana [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":952542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-952541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=952541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/952542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}