Lithuanian filmmaker Emilija Škarnulytė’s new documentary, “Sounds of the Desert,” explores the lives and musical visions of Abshalom Ben Shlomo and Marshall Allen, members of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Ben Shlomo died in 2024, while Allen, aged 102, is still performing.
The film combines interviews, archival footage and live performances with journeys through places connected to the Arkestra’s sound, including the Arkestral House of Sun Ra in Philadelphia, Chicago, a forest in Lithuania and the Negev Desert.
Founded by Sun Ra in Chicago in the mid-1950s, the ensemble brought together avant-garde music, cosmic philosophy, ritual and spectacle. It became an important influence on Afrofuturism and the idea of outer space as a realm of Black freedom.
“Sounds of the Desert” is scheduled to make its world premiere on November 18 in the Rebels With a Cause Competition at the 30th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia. Škarnulytė wrote, directed and produced the film, drawing on a decade-long friendship with Ben Shlomo and her connection to the Arkestra’s world.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter.