Thursday, February 12, 2015

Journey With Me to Sun Ra’s “Space is The Place”


“My whole body changed into something else. I landed on a planet that I identified as Saturn.” - Sun Ra

The Museum of African Diaspora (MOAD) and The Contemporary Jewish Museum recently held a 40th anniversary screening of jazz theorist and philosopher Sun Ra’s 1974 science-fiction cosmo-drama Space is The Place. In this complex, quasi-abstract, weird, militant Blaxploitation, visionary, Afrofuturistic, and hood-conscious film, Sun Ra takes viewers on a journey from space to Earth in hope of reclaiming Black minds using interstellar techniques, imagery, and Black Power consciousness colliding with the fashion sense of Shaft and Superfly.

The opening introduces us to a Black man dressed in head-to-toe Parliament-Funkadelic Egyptian regalia: Sun Ra. Coming from a bluish planet inhabited by Black people, he makes his entrance on Earth a spaceship evocative of a rubber raft with two blood-shot red eyeballs plastered on it. Sun Ra’s purpose for coming to Earth is to recruit more potential Black occupants, and spread a few philosophical lessons. His purpose becomes clear with his initial question: “Are you ready to alter your destiny?”

Sun Ra meets many challenges trip to Earth, ranging from a deferential reporter, to some teenagers who question his own existence: “How do we know you’re for real?” and dismiss him as “some old hippie” from Telegraph Ave.

Challenged in reclaiming the African and Black consciousness of his future inhabitants, Ra faces his greatest foe in his quest of freedom and liberation in the power structure that takes the form of “The Overseer” and his minion Jimmy Fey. The Overseer is a diabolical pimp and incarnation of evil in the Black community, in many ways a metaphor for the overseers from the U.S. slave trade, and Jimmy is reminiscent of present day Blacks trying to make it in the entertainment industry at any cost. As a ploy, The Overseer poses himself to be a community leader and a man of charity, while in fact being the tool of a dominant elite, hierarchal organization. In addition, to facing The Overseer, Ra must also combat White government agents (presumably from the FBI) who are attempting to eliminate him. From both racial angles, Black and White, Ra must fight to the death for the fate of the Black race.



The film’s strengths included Ra’s genius musical skills. With a complex, at times disjointed, storyline (i.e. cosmic card games, 1940s jazz club vignettes, and proselytizing at an inner city youth center), Space is The Place features Ra’s 12-member band, the Arkestra. Clearly heard and on occasion seen in the film, the band melds heavy, kinetic percussions, an electrifying synthesizer, flamboyant horn, and a brass section that elevate jazz to a new dimension. For some, the music may not be enough to stay engaged with the plot. Much like how Sun Ra was difficult to understand and grasp, Space is The Place incorporates that confusion with a small opening of clarity. The film is a brilliant statement that informs audiences about 1970s race.


Space Is The Place is fundamental viewing, particularly for those interested in jazz or African/African American-diasporic cinema. Despite poor distribution and few theater screenings, the 1950s and 1960s futuristic acid jazz soundtrack made the film an underground classic.

Although this is Ra’s only film (honestly, he only needed one to preach his philosophy) he also made strides in the academic arena. Prior to the film, in the Spring 1971 semester, Sun Ra served as an artist-in-residence here at UC Berkeley. He taught a course in the African American Studies department, “The Black Man in the Universe,” or “The Black Man in the Cosmos.” While in the Bay (particularly Oakland), Sun Ra caught the attention of film and television producer Jim Newman. Listening to Sun Ra's lectures makes it obvious that the course and the Arkestra band influenced the film. Ra’s teaching style consisted of lecture for the first part of the class, then treating the students to keyboard solos or perhaps Arkestra performances for the second half: the epitome of an informative and engaging class. Watching and listening to him push the envelope is truly a cosmic experience.

More than just a dark, super-sonic bootleg 85-minute film, Space is the Place is a filmic vision laced with Ra’s musical talent, which sought to expand the consciousness of African Americans in Oakland’s hoods. Combining elements and references from the King James Bible, Afrocentrism, science-fiction, occult philosophy, Egyptology, and his own “Arkestra” band, Sun Ra created futuristic free jazz while telling a story of empowerment and survival. Space is The Place is a timely film that incorporates amiable silliness while examining race relations blended with radical paranoia, all in the context of the Black Panther movement and the post-Vietnam era. Space is The Place is an enjoyable, imaginative film with a dramatically unique plot.


*As posted in The Berkeley Graduate

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G-Breezy's Favorite Movies

  • Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
  • Die Hard series
  • Do the Right Thing
  • Fracture
  • Idlewild
  • Imitation of Life
  • Inside Man
  • James Bond series
  • Love Jones
  • Malcolm X