Sun Ra, “Space is the Place” (https://www.ubu.com/film/ra_space.html)
(1974, 63 minutes) [300 words]
Some questions things to consider:
Last week, we watched Akomfrah’s documentary “Last Angel of History,” which heavily referenced Sun Ra’s experimental science fiction film, “Space is the Place.” Given what you learned from Akomfrah’s documentary about afrofuturism and black science fiction, how do you interpret Sun Ra’s film?
Genre fiction, such as horror, romance, crime, fantasy, and science fiction offer ready tropes or expected sets of rules for stories to follow. For example: what do you know about vampires? We all know they drink blood. They can only be killed with a wooden stake through the heart, sunlight, or beheading. Garlic, crosses, and holy water repel them. These are the general rules–the basic container–but beyond that, genre fiction can fill those containers with any specifics. The details contained within the boundaries of a genre’s rules are often meant, paradoxically, to stretch, twist, or even break those rules. (Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer! A slayer is a character Joss Whedon introduced to the genre. He made the slayer tiny, blonde, and female in order to break certain tropes and make a statement about women and power). Oftentimes, the twists in genre fiction are introduced through unconventional characters (such as Buffy, the California cheerleader who kills demons). What does the genre of science fiction offer as a set of rules, or container, for the Sun Ra’s message? What’s the twist; Or, how does Sun Ra’s message change or break the rules of generic science fiction? One place to begin might be identifying certain generic roles and narrative plot points. For example, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? What motivates the main characters? What’s the central conflict? How does the conflict resolve; Or, does it resolve? etc.
