Monthly Archives: February 2023

FilmYearDescriptionAfronauts2014The film, directed by Ghanaian filmmaker Frances Bodomo, features the Zambia Space Academy that works to beat the United States to the moon as the latter prepares its Apollo 11 launch.[4][5]Air Conditioner2020The Angolan film directed by Fradique revolves around the air-conditioners mysteriously starting to fall in the city of Luanda. The Guardian called the film Afrofuturist, writing, "Its a magic-realist parable with the thinnest shrinkwrapping of sci-fi" that shows how "the service guarantee runs out on the technology".[6]Black Is King2020The musical film and video album directed, written, and executive produced by American singer Beyonc. Scholar Kinitra D. Brooks describes the film as "an aural and visual rendering of Afrofuturistic Blackness in the 21st century". Brooks said, "Afrofuturism urges Black people to recover their pasts in order to create their own futures. 'Black Is King' imagines what it looks like to be there, whole and healed."[7]Black Panther2018The superhero film, directed by Ryan Coogler, stars the comic book character Black Panther who is the king of the fictional kingdom of Wakanda. The film features Afrofuturist themes.[8][9][10]Black Panther: Wakanda Forever2022The superhero film is a sequel to Black Panther. The film explores Afrofuturism "in the way the mantle of Black Panther presumably passes to Princess Shuri".[11]Blade1998In the superhero film, the human-vampire hybrid Blade, played by black actor Wesley Snipes, protects humanity from evil vampires.[1][12][10]Born in Flames1983The film, directed by Lizzie Borden, is described by Hyperallergic's Jeremy Polacek: "[It] presents the revolution as televised, paraded, reported, and reiterated by pundits and politicians and yet still incomplete. Socialism may reign in Bordens post-revolutionary America, but so does patriarchy, racism, and sexism."[12]The Brother from Another Planet1984The science fiction film, directed by John Sayles, features an alien who escapes slavery on "Another Planet" and crash-lands and hides in Harlem.[12][10]Brown Girl Begins2017The film is set in Toronto in the near future, and the upper class is protected by a force field.[13][5][10]Crumbs2015The Ethiopian post-apocalyptic film is directed by Miguel Llans.[4][10]Earthbound2021Short film directed by Swedish-Ugandan filmmaker Baker Karim. 2121. Earth has become uninhabitable and some have been chosen to leave the planet. Max is not among the chosen ones, but his goal is to get aboard the Ark, at any cost. "Earthbound" is the first Swedish Afro-futuristic film.[14]Executive Order2020A 2020 Brazilian dystopian drama film directed by Lzaro Ramos (in his feature directorial debut), based on the stage play Namibia, no! by Aldri Anunciao.Fast Color2018In the American superhero film, three generations of women have superpowers and are on the run from the government.[15]Hello, Rain2018The short film, directed by C.J. Obasi features a Scientist-Witch, who through an alchemical combination of juju and technology creates wigs which grant her and her friends supernatural powers. But when their powers grow uncontrollable, she must stop them by any means. It is based on the short story Hello, Moto by Nigerian-American author, Nnedi Okorafor.[16][5]Kwaku Ananse2013The short film, directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu, shows a parallel between the Ghanaian fable "Anansi the Spider" and a young girl's life.[9]The Last Angel of History1996The film, produced by Black Audio Film Collective and directed by John Akomfrah, combines science fiction and essay approaches and features a time-traveling "data thief" who searches for code to reveal his future.[1][17][5][9][10]A Love Letter to the Ancestors From Chicago2017The short film is directed by Ytasha Womack.[18]Memory Room 4511997The film, produced by the Black Audio Film Collective, is set in a dystopian world and presented as a documentary in which a time traveler interviews people of an earlier era.[4]Monsoons Over The Moon2015The two-part short film, directed by Kenyan filmmaker Dan Muchina, is set in Nairobi in a dystopian future. A street gang fights against totalitarianism by freeing young people trapped in the system.[19]Neptune Frost2021The film is set in a Burundian village that is made from recycled parts of computers. It features a romance between a coltan miner and an intersex runaway.[20]An Oversimplification of Her Beauty2012The film, directed by Terence Nance, is described by Ashley Clark as a "mash-up of integrated fiction/nonfiction shorts, home video, voiceover narration and stock footage" including "plentiful, head-spinningly trippy animation sequences that place the film squarely in Afrofuturistic territory".[1]Pumzi2009The short film, directed by Wanuri Kahiu, is Kenya's first science fiction film.[4][12][19][5][9][10]Ratnik2019The Nigerian science-fiction thriller film, directed by Dimeji Ajibola, features a soldier who comes home from World War III to find her sister deathly ill as a result of a chemical substance.[10]Robots of Brixton2011The computer-generated short film, directed by Kibwe Tavares, re-contextualizes the 1981 Brixton riot in a dystopian future where robots riot against human police forces.[4]Les Saignantes (English: Those Who Bleed)2005The erotic science fiction thriller is directed by Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bekolo.[4]Sankofa1993The film, directed by Ethiopian-born Haile Gerima, features a contemporary model who, during a photo shoot, suddenly finds herself on a plantation in the Southern United States during the plantation era.[4][12][17][5][10]See You Yesterday2019The time-travel film with a social-justice narrative features two black teenagers from Brooklyn trying to use time travel to change the world.[21]The Sin Seer2015A cop and a person who can "see" others' sins work together to solve cases, but one case leads the gifted person to face her past.[5][10]Space Is the Place1974The film, directed by John Coney, is a science-fiction take on the real-life musician Sun Ra and his crew The Arkestra. Ashley Clark said Ra plays "a cosmic card game" with a megapimp "to determine the fate of the black race". Clark said, "What follows is a brilliant and bizarre melange of comedy, musical performance and occasionally lurid blaxploitation aesthetics. It also, crucially, has a number of serious points to make about the plight of young urban blacks in a harsh, post-civil rights climate."[1][8][12][2][17][10]Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse2018The animated superhero film follows Miles Morales becoming Spider-Man after the death of the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker, in his universe. Morales also teams up with other Spider-People, including an alternate version of Parker, to defeat Kingpin and return them to their home realities.[22]Supa Modo2018In the feature film, a nine-year-old girl from a Kenyan village has a terminal illness and dreams of becoming a superhero. Her village helps her realize her dream. 14East said of the film's Afrofuturist touch, "There is a very mysterious element of magic realism and fantasy."[9][10]Swimming In Your Skin Again2015The short film is directed by Terence Nance. 14East described it as "a film that leans toward experimental stylistically, its content is very thematic and its sequences are dreamlike... [and] speculates what could be some major issues in the future if we do not respect nature".[9]They Charge for the Sun2017The short film, directed by Terence Nance, is set in a future where people live at night to avoid harmful sun rays and in which melanin comes into play.[17][5][10]To Catch a Dream2015The Kenyan surrealist short film, written and directed by Jim Chuchu, features a grieving widow who has nightmares and tries a mystical remedy to end them.[19]Touch2013The short film, directed by Shola Amoo, is set in the near future.[4]Touki Bouki1973The Senegalese road film is directed by Djibril Diop Mambty. The New York Times's Glenn Kenny said, "The movie is replete with such purposeful disjointedness, the better to articulate space-time dissociations."[2][9]Trafik d'Info2005The film, directed by Janluk Stanislas, was shot in Guadelope and is considered the first science fiction film to be shot in the Caribbean.[4]Welcome II the Terrordome1995The film, directed by Ngozi Onwurah, is set in an inner-city slum in a dystopian near-future. The film is the first directed by a black British woman to be released in theaters.[1][12][17]White Out, Black In2014The science fiction documentary, directed by Adirley Queirs, is set in Brazil and follows three men who deal with a past tragedy.[4]A Wrinkle in Time2018The multiracial adaptation of the 1962 science fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time has, according to author and filmmaker Ytasha Womack, an Afrofuturistic signature of "strong female" characters.[13]Yeelen (English: Brightness)1987The Malian film, directed by Souleymane Ciss "follows a young mage on a journey to confront his power-mad father". The New York Times's Glenn Kenny said of the film in the context of Afrofuturism, "Mr. Cisss languid but mindful pacing and his indifference to Western film language conventions on space and time transitions also contribute to the movies distinction."[2][17]

The rest is here:
List of Afrofuturist films - Wikipedia