CFDBNYC Out and About

BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions is a film that transcend media in all spaces. The feature debut by Kahlil Joseph uses archival footage, scripted scenes, news reporting and interviews to tell the story of being Black in a world where capitalism, erasure and revisionist theory threatening the culture. The mixed media concept is a ode to old news reels and reporting that used to be in the theatres in the early 20th century. Kahlil Joseph’s approach here was to educate and explain the global black experience from the past to the future. Clips from social media apps and interviews of renown scholars give the audience the definition of being black and the importance of culture pretaining to black folks. There are several themes in the film that is addressed such as the importance of the black dollar. This theme is highlighted due to the upcoming holiday shopping season especially Black Friday. Another theme is the theology of W.E.B Du Bois and the early ideology of black civil rights where separation was vital to the uplifting of black Americans. The idea is sprinkled throughout the film. Another theme is the experience in American cities such as Philadelphia, Detroit and New York City. The exploration of black people who are Americans and keeps fighting just for civil rights is shown in conjunction with Africa’s own struggles to keep it own identity. The images of black revolutionaries shows up from time to time to emphasize that the job is not done. The second half of the film focus on the creation of BLKNWS and the philosophy behind it. Using scripted scenes to dramatized Du Bois later years, Joseph tries to get insight onto why Du Bois is still influential after his death. The historical narrative of Du Bois segway into Ghana’s struggles to maintain independence. The Encyclopedia named Africana that he wanted to work on before his death is shown prominently in the film like a bridge that connects Africans to African Americans. As we watch various news reports on Ghana with visions of Marcus Garvey in the background, you are reminded that one African country struggles is the same as African Americans struggles. The scenes that depict a female reporter trying to write a story is brilliant and the narrative is fantastic. Seeing black women talking about the past and future along with romance is a good combination and point that the film gets across. The music selection is brilliant as we get soul, jazz and afrofuturistic sounds that compliments the film well. The interactions with the characters as they look for any meaning of what’s happening in black culture. The clips of interviews and newsreels are good but can be a little distracting. BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions is a unapologetic black film or should we say capsule that is created to preserve the present for the future to understand what previous generations done and the meaning behind them. Kahlil Joseph did a great job of combining mixed media with a curated script that allows us to watch black culture in its purest form. Everything in the film represents brings a vision that needed. We applaud the effort and hopefully the film gets more coverage because it’s really good.