BLKNWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS
Khalil Joseph | Fiction / Experimental | United States | 2025 | 113 min. | English |
Introduction
Hosted by Africadelic | Introduced by Maurice San-A-Jong
Reimagining Black history, memory and the stories that shape our understanding of the world.
Who gets to tell history? Who decides what is remembered, what is forgotten and whose stories become part of our collective consciousness?
In BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, acclaimed artist and filmmaker Khalil Joseph takes audiences on an extraordinary cinematic journey through Black history, culture and imagination, challenging the boundaries between documentary, fiction and contemporary art.
At the heart of the film lies The Resonance Field, a monumental intellectual project by fictional West African scholar Funmilayo Akechukwu. As a journalist becomes drawn into her research on the Atlantic Ocean, the film unfolds into an expansive exploration of memory, identity and the interconnected histories of the African diaspora.
Inspired in part by W.E.B. Du Bois’s ambitious vision for an Encyclopedia Africana, Joseph brings together historical figures, contemporary artists, archival imagery, music and everyday expressions of Black life. Through a kaleidoscopic visual language, seemingly separate stories begin to resonate across continents, generations and historical moments.
Moving fluidly between past, present and imagined futures, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions challenges conventional storytelling and Western frameworks of historical knowledge. Rather than presenting history as a fixed narrative, Joseph invites us to experience it as something living, fragmented and continuously reinterpreted.
The result is a bold and immersive cinematic experience that celebrates Black intellectual thought, artistic expression and the power of reclaiming the narratives through which we understand ourselves and the world.
The screenings are presented in collaboration with Africadelic and introduced by Maurice San-A-Jong, founder of Narratives of the Colonized. His work explores colonial histories, African and Caribbean independence movements and the ways colonial narratives continue to shape contemporary society.
Together, the film and introduction invite audiences to reflect on the politics of representation, the ownership of history and the importance of telling our own stories.
Reimagining Black history, memory and the stories that shape our understanding of the world.
Who gets to tell history? Who decides what is remembered, what is forgotten and whose stories become part of our collective consciousness?
In BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, acclaimed artist and filmmaker Khalil Joseph takes audiences on an extraordinary cinematic journey through Black history, culture and imagination, challenging the boundaries between documentary, fiction and contemporary art.
At the heart of the film lies The Resonance Field, a monumental intellectual project by fictional West African scholar Funmilayo Akechukwu. As a journalist becomes drawn into her research on the Atlantic Ocean, the film unfolds into an expansive exploration of memory, identity and the interconnected histories of the African diaspora.
Inspired in part by W.E.B. Du Bois’s ambitious vision for an Encyclopedia Africana, Joseph brings together historical figures, contemporary artists, archival imagery, music and everyday expressions of Black life. Through a kaleidoscopic visual language, seemingly separate stories begin to resonate across continents, generations and historical moments.
Moving fluidly between past, present and imagined futures, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions challenges conventional storytelling and Western frameworks of historical knowledge. Rather than presenting history as a fixed narrative, Joseph invites us to experience it as something living, fragmented and continuously reinterpreted.
The result is a bold and immersive cinematic experience that celebrates Black intellectual thought, artistic expression and the power of reclaiming the narratives through which we understand ourselves and the world.
The screenings are presented in collaboration with Africadelic and introduced by Maurice San-A-Jong, founder of Narratives of the Colonized. His work explores colonial histories, African and Caribbean independence movements and the ways colonial narratives continue to shape contemporary society.
Together, the film and introduction invite audiences to reflect on the politics of representation, the ownership of history and the importance of telling our own stories.