Name: Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise
Start: 2026-06-07T15:00:00-04:00
Location: The Film House At Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center

VTIFF is excited to present this special screening as part of the 2026 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival. After the movie, we’re thrilled to welcome filmmaker Robert Mugge for a Q&A.
“One of the most satisfying portraits I’ve ever seen. An extraordinary documentary. Revelatory.” —Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Acclaimed musicologist and documentarian Robert Mugge—the filmmaker behind definitive, clear-eyed chronicles of Sonny Rollins (Saxophone Colossus), Al Green (Gospel According to Al Green), Gil Scott-Heron (Black Wax), and many more—presents his most celebrated portrait, Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise. The film captures the visionary artist-philosopher-Afrofuturist and his avant-garde jazz Arkestra in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. between 1978 (circa Lanquidity) and 1980, featuring interviews, behind-the-scenes rehearsals, extended improvisations, and poetry readings, as well as out-of-this-world performances at Danny’s Hollywood Palace, the rooftop of the Philadelphia International Center, and Baltimore’s Famous Ballroom. Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise was selected by Time Out London as one of the 50 Greatest Music Films Ever.