Space Is the Place

Dir. John Coney. 1974, 85 mins. Restored DCP. With Barbara Deloney, Sun Ra, Raymond Johnson, Marshall Allen. Space Is the Place is a rare, unmissable trash-culture, science-fiction classic. Starring the Afrofuturism jazz star Sun Ra, this loosely based biopic offers the uninitiated a tantalizing glimpse into his fantastical world. Born in 1914 as Herman Poole Blount, Sun Ra had a vision in his 30s that he had somehow originated from Saturn and promptly changed his name to Le Sony’r Ra, shortened to Sun Ra. Dressed from then on in elaborate Egyptian-inspired papal robes, and arriving in a music powered spaceship, he spent the next half-century on a mission to enlighten the world with his unique experimental music, and save the black race from social injustice by starting an all-black colony in the sky.