‘Neptune Frost’ Directors Discuss Visual Sci-Fi Musical ‘Showing How a Revolution Begins’

Neptune Frost, The famous science fiction film by musician, poet, actor and artist Saul Williams (blow) and film director, actress and DP Anisia Uzeiman (Tea), is the heat of the revolution and an attempt to change the current cultural algorithm, set in a supernatural e-waste field made from recycled computer parts, soundtracked by Williams’ original music, offering much more than white noise. Executive Produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Stephen Handel (find face), the hollywood reporterCheck described Neptune’s Frost As “an openly queer film… it uses everything the film medium has to offer: visual, audible and emotional”.

The film, which premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and also screened at TIFF, NYFF and BFI in London in 2021 and Sundance in 2022 before opening in select theaters across the country earlier this summer, hit theaters on Tuesday. fair. To celebrate the larger audience, Williams and Uzeyman spoke THR About how their experimental offerings have evolved over the years and how they hope to grow the canon that brought these cult classics to the public. Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Within African cosmology, the concept of time is not exactly linear or rigid, but intuitively follows the natural rhythm of the day; Just as sunrise and sunset can vary slightly from one day to the next, people’s schedules can also vary. With that in mind, what was the process of writing, producing and filming this film like? Did you find the non-western timeline?

Saul Williams I don’t think our deadlines were tight; We took the time to do it. It took us seven years to get into the public sector, and that’s how long it took us to get there. We were very clear about the time it took to raise the money, build the vision, write the music, make the costumes, figure it all out. There were many moving parts. So for the most part, I would say we didn’t work hard, even if it was planned. There are times when timelines are useful.

anisia uzeimani And then, I think, when he was hard, it was more a matter of instinct. Somehow we felt like we had to shoot the movie in February 2020. It was crazy to do it in hindsight. [Editor’s note: Filming wrapped in Rwanda on March 4, 2020, just before the COVID-19 lockdown.] We really struggled with the push.

Williams I love the time we spend together. Because the research process, the books we read, the conversations we had, was the moment to put some of the ideas that would appear in the script. There was a time for things to happen organically.

When I think about Hollywood audiences, I’m a bit critical of some of the images the industry has promoted through films; I think Hollywood often perpetuates old tropes and archetypes of blackness; we saw countless movies about slavery, for example. How does Afrofuturism as a genre counter this trend by imagining a different future rather than living in the past?

commemorative I think within science fiction, and we’ve also seen this recently with horror movies, there’s an opportunity to use our imagination in the game, to give our own views from the outside. I think the limitation of historical films (although I think it should be possible to tell these stories in interesting ways) is that the genre is already framed by Hollywood and the industry.

Williams I don’t think you necessarily need Afrofuturism to break away from the tired tropes we see projected by the media in terms of blackness. I just want to see imagination used in a way that transcends. To be clear, Anisia and I never thought, “We’re making an Afrofuturist movie.” We were filming a science fiction movie that is a musical. But we had the technology and the locker room and we saw what people were talking about. for what is true [the film] corresponds to this kind of idea. But at the end of the day, when I see a lot of science fiction coming out of Hollywood, I’m like, “Okay, I get it. You are afraid that aliens will come and colonize or enslave you, this is a projection of your fear based on history.

I have always questioned the extent of imagination in science fiction, when aliens are supposed to have superior intelligence but are only attributed to making better or faster weapons. For example, if he is of superior intelligence, why the violence?

I think it’s because we’re commercializing this area of ​​exploration: expectations of what people consider entertainment or escapism. And that’s what Anisia and I were excited about, being part of the community and part of the artist exchange. We really wanted to make a movie that spoke to us and also spoke beyond us.

commemorative [And also speaks] At the moment. This film is a portrait of a community of young people who talk like this, who think these things. It is also a portrait of who we are.

Williams For example, you think of the languages ​​spoken in the movie. And some might think we tried our best to make it Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, French, English, Swahili. But no: the film actually reflects how the actors in the film communicate, how people communicate in this region of the continent using all these languages, which is a reflection of both migration and technology. And that’s interesting for us. To me, that’s more interesting than hearing everyone speak English with a fake accent, because it’ll sell better.

I was thinking about language, especially the way we now understand it on the Internet through computers. Memes are non-verbal language and we have emotions that are symbolic images. The different forms of communication can be felt as a thread running through the film.

commemorative I was impressed by the filmed conversations. I don’t think we get a lot of opportunities to see conversations on screen, how they happen, what people actually talk and say to each other. We really loved this opportunity in the movie to be able to capture real dialogue.

How would you say this project is a continuation of your individual creative journey? As multidisciplinary artists, do you feel at home when the film’s subjects live between identities?

Williams For me, as a person who writes poetry, my dream was to connect these things into a narrative, to tell a story. I’ve tried this before with poetry books to have some element of lines to create a sense of character and be able to move on to the next stage of storytelling. Another thing is that he dreamed of writing a musical since he was a teenager. And it’s very much based on the feeling of questioning why a musical can only sound the same.

The African drum is a rhythm, a frequency, so to speak, the whole. Why did this story require a musical narration?

Williams To be honest, he was born with the music and this rhythm. Anisia and I had our first conversation about this story when we were in Dakar, Senegal, watching children build drums after school, getting ready for a dance or drum competition in their neighborhood. But they had smartphones with Beats headphones next to them. And the observation was, “Shit, old technology and new technology together.” That’s how it all started. Yes, it was born out of drama.

commemorative Drum also as the main means of communication.

Williams The drum is the first form of wireless communication.

Rwanda is such a rich environment chosen [and Anisia‘s native country]. How was the experience of filming there? Were you aware that the American audience was in the middle or did you feel a little out of place?

commemorative As a movie buff, I don’t think you can think through that lens. I think those lenses are so current and so depressing that when you’re making a movie like this, you have to think about it because you’re just trying to free that gaze, transcend it, question it again, redefine it. that. But then it’s a movie, right? is the format. And that says a lot about how we see ourselves and how others see us. And the idea here was to really show something that completely reflects what we think is beautiful, that takes others through the door of love into that beauty.

Williams As the only American on set, I would watch Anisia’s film and see what we’re capturing through her eyes and I’d be amazed… as if I couldn’t wait for people to see it. I really think of the film in many ways as an offering. And I don’t want to sound pretentious, I’m just… I’m a kid from New York who grew up around people who might not have as many stamps in their passports or even passports they dream of. Connecting with a continent that dreams of hearing these languages, seeing these people, hearing these stories, seeing something that reflects them.

commemorative It was one side and then the other side [it was] That people see themselves in Rwanda, Burundi, East Africa or the continent in general, that they see something different from the way the West sees them, which is often the case in reality. We have access to very few films that are actually made by Africans, by Africans on the continent.

Williams This also answers your other question about Afrofuturism, but I think one of the things about the movie that might have been unexpected, that might have been problematic for some of us Guardians, is that yes, the movie was from the mainland, but it’s not horror. by any means. . It’s not someone’s hunger or someone’s need. I think there are people who don’t know how to relate because the relationship that many people have with the continent is filmic, documentary. It’s like National Geographic.

commemorative The desire was to explore art, to reflect the wonderful and vibrant art scene that is happening on the continent at the moment.

Starting today, viewers will be able to see Neptune’s Frost on Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play and Kino Now, and there are still several upcoming theatrical releases across the country. How will running VOD on laptops or TV screens change the movie theater viewing experience?

Williams It’s a mixed bag for us because Neptune’s Frost it’s an immersive experience and should be lived on the full screen. When images and music surround you, if you embrace them, they can touch and heal you. But what VOD does is give more people the chance to watch it, so we’re excited to be keeping an eye on it. But we dream of a theatrical renaissance in the US. We dream of things like this happening. Rocky Horror Picture Show, where people watch and use it every year. Time to add to that law and Neptune’s Frost He is built for that law.

commemorative It’s exciting because people can see it and see it again. And people said that’s what they’re doing.

I have to admit the love story between the two of you and the one who directs the movie. Much of the story revolves around this sense of connection, which is fascinating in an age of technology and so many parasocial relationships thanks to social media. What were your comments about where we are as a culture and how connected we are?

commemorative I think it was an expression of how a revolution begins. I think of illegal ways to connect the dots, break things and realize that everything is part of you. And that, when connected to the other, radiates something: an energy, a knowledge, a potential far beyond itself. That’s what the story is about: the power we create when we connect.