About this Event
Artengine presents a new series of intimate gatherings to experience and discuss films, art works, games and more. For the first edition of the GroupChat we present the collaborative work of Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman - a impressive and original work of cinema.
We will screen the work in our Studio space to a small gathering and afterwards unpack the heady and complex experience of the film.
Light snacks and beverages will be provided.
Reserve your spot!
NEPTUNE FROST (2021), 105 minutes
"Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends."
“Critic’s Pick! Mind-bending. An Afrofuturist fantasia that is also a musical, a science-fiction parable and a hacker manifesto.”
– A. O. Scott, The New York Times
“The future of Black film. Pure cinematic power.”
– Jourdain Searles, The Hollywood Reporter
“One of the most extraordinarily original cinema experiences of the year.”
– Carlos Aguilar, The Wrap
“A mesmerizing Afropunk odyssey hacking at the boundaries of gender, technology, and class.”
– Toussaint Egan, Polygon
"A queer, anarchic, and optimistic vision of the future.”
– Eric Torres, Pitchfork
“Visionary. A journey of visual ecstasy.”
– Valerie Complex, Deadline
“A percussive, transcendental Afrofuturist musical… sounds out with force and clarity.”
– Charles Bramesco, Little White Lies
“A sensory delight… bursting with life and ingenuity.”
– Jude Dry, Indiewire
“Hauntingly beautiful and deeply enigmatic.”
– Lisa Kennedy, Variety
“A future cult classic in the making."
– Dustin Chang, Screen Anarchy
“A truly distinctive vision.”
– Eric Kohn, Indiewire
"An anti-colonial call to arms, a sci-fi tale that looks at the future but is haunted by the past."
– Leonardo Goi, MUBI Notebook
Directed by : Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman
Cast : Cheryl Isheja, Kaya Free, Eliane Umuhire, Dorcy Rugamba, Rebecca Mucyo, Tresor Niyongabo, Elvis Ngabo
Crew : Anisia Uzeyman , Saul Williams , Anisha Acharya , Cedric Mizero
Country : U.S., Rwanda
Language: Kinyarwanda, English, Swahili and French with English subtitles
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Artengine, 2 Daly Avenue, Ottawa, Canada
CAD 0.00
