BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is the hypnotic and long-anticipated feature debut of Kahlil Joseph, a visionary filmmaker and installation artist known for his radical, genre-defying approach to Black visual culture. Structured like a concept album in 21 tracks, the film blends narrative, documentary, and archival material into a time-bending odyssey across 247 years of diasporic memory.
Set aboard The Nautica, a transatlantic cruise ship hosting a radical art biennial, the film follows a young journalist investigating an exhibition curated by West African scholar Funmilayo Akechukwu. As her investigation deepens, the past and future begin to collapse into one. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois’ unfinished vision for an encyclopedia of the African diaspora, BLKNWS operates like a cinematic encyclopedia of Black consciousness — juxtaposing historical figures and fictional storylines with YouTube clips, social media, television, and performance. The result is a kaleidoscopic transmission: urgent, archival, and alive with the phantom presence of ancestors and the promise of Black futures.
Arthur Jafa, Kaneza Schaal, Garrett Bradley, Raven Jackson, Dionne Brand
USA
2025
English
Flashing/strobing lights
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Credits & Director
Producer
Kahlil Joseph, Onye Anyanwu
Screenwriter
Kahlil Joseph, Onye Anyanwu Saidiya Hartman, Kristen Adele Calhoun, Irvin Hunt, Christina Sharpe, Madebo Fatunde
Cinematography
Bradford Young
Editor
Kahlil Joseph, Luke Lynch, Paul Rogers
Original Music
Klein
Kahlil Joseph
Kahlil Joseph is an acclaimed artist and filmmaker known for his visionary approach to storytelling through film and video installations. Born in Seattle, Joseph has directed music videos for artists such as Kendrick Lamar, FKA Twigs, Sampha, and Beyoncé, and his work has been featured in major exhibitions worldwide, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement in Geneva, and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. His most ambitious and ongoing project is BLKNWS, a conceptual artwork and business that redefines how Black culture is experienced and communicated.
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BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
Kahlil Joseph’s long-awaited, hypnotic debut is a 21-track odyssey through Black memory and imagination. Fiction, archive, and digital fragments collide aboard a transatlantic ship in this radical, time-bending voyage across collective consciousness.