One of the biggest commercial hits of 2018, Black Panther introduced many viewers to Afrofuturism, a decades-old arts movement that combines traditional African culture with science-fiction and fantasy. This past January and February, Doc Films presented a seven-film series on Afrofuturism in cinema, with selections ranging from Blade (1995), the vampire adventure starring Wesley Snipes, to Space Is the Place (1974), about visionary jazz musician Sun Ra. And this Saturday at 7:30 PM, Chicago Filmmakers hosts a program of Afrofuturist short films from the past decade, curated by Floyd Webb of Black World Cinema.
Janeen Talbott’s Sight (2017), a story of female empowerment, takes place in an alternate world whose civilization is an amalgam of African tribal society and futuristic technocracy. A young woman is chosen to succeed the leader of her tribe, and despite doubting her power at first, she gains faith in herself after experiencing a vision of her tribe’s future. Seeing that her people may go to war with another tribe, she uses her influence with her elders to avert this conflict. The movie’s message of peace between black people suggests the influence of Pan-African thought, a movement that took root in Africa in the 1960s and seeks to promote unity among all people of African descent.
98 min. Sat 7/28, 7:30 PM. Chicago Filmmakers, 5720 N. Ridge, chicagofilmmakers.org, $8
