In one of the key scenes in this legendary film by John Coney in 1974, Sun Ra, the »brother from another planet«, tries to convince Afro-American youth in a youth centre full of Malcom X, Black Panther and Angela Davis- posters of his mission. He says, “I come from a dream which your ancestors dreamt. I am a gift sent to you by your ancestors.” Past science fiction is being used to help leave a feeling of homelessness in the present. Another word for this is “Afro-futurism”, effective across George Clinton and Lee Perry to Drexciya all the way through to Kendrick Lamar. “Space Is The Place” presents Sun Ra’s ideas in a somewhat strange mixture of low-budget Blaxploitation thriller with pimps, psychedelic science fiction with NASA counter players, esoteric agitation and a highly energetic soundtrack, which conveys that it all actually belongs together right from the start. As the film negative has long been considered missing, the only very »used« but newly scanned 35mm copy will be used. The result: a sonic-visual message in a bottle from 1974 with lots of scratches and patches, but conveying a message with an underground verve that has lost none of its up-to-dateness.
