The cast and crew of Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions came together at the 63rd annual New York Film Festival to celebrate the film’s NYFF premiere.
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is part of the Main Slate for the festival.
Joseph’s debut feature is an experimental, genre-bending film on the Black experience. BLKNWS has come a long way, from an acclaimed art installation to a feature film. But the project took several different forms before it became what it is today.
“So many different kinds of artists got brought onto the project together, and we all talked about it as an album,” said creative Kaneza Schaal in an interview with The Knockturnal. “I got to direct a segment of the work that was written by Saidiya Hartman, and I ended up performing in it as well.”
Joseph collaborated with Schaal, Harman, Irvin Hunt, and many more artists and writers to create BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions. The feature is a combination of art and academia, with archival footage and fiction filmmaking.
“The thing that thrills me about this film is the formal demand it places on how we watch and how we gather to watch it,” said Schaal.“It’s so very meaningful to be a part of something that also lives in the logic of composition.”
Schaal was joined by Joseph, producer Onye Anyanwu, and James Shani, founder of production company Rich Spirit.
“It’s a film that speaks to our time, and how the current climate is working very hard to…sanitize the Black and brown experience,” said Shani in an interview with The Knockturnal. I think this film speaks to that experience in a very pure and celebratory way.”
“From Kahlil’s earliest work, I’ve been mesmerized by him as a filmmaker…he’s one in a million,” said cinematographer Jomo Fray, who was at the festival to celebrate the release.
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions will be released in theaters on November 2 in select cities.
(Photo courtesy of Rich Spirit)
