The film is framed as a cinematic meditation and a musical and visual journey, focusing on how the Arkestra created a cosmos to find strength to live within and transform the world.
Insider access: Filmmaker Emilija Škarnulytė reveals a decade-long friendship with Abshalom Ben Shlomo, which opened a path into the Arkestra’s universe where music holds memory.
Verified facts: The doc premieres Nov. 18 at Tallinn Black Nights. It features interviews, archival footage, and live performances, traveling through Philadelphia, Chicago, a forest in Lithuania, and the Negev Desert.
This isn't just a biography; it's a journey through landscapes and histories that shaped one of jazz's most enduring avant-garde ensembles.
Stop scrolling. You think you know the Sun Ra Arkestra? Think again.
This isn't just a music story; it’s a cinematic meditation on the lives, music, and cosmic visions of two members of one of jazz’s longest-running avant-garde ensembles. At 102 years old, Marshall Allen is still performing, continuing the legacy founded by Sun Ra in Chicago in the mid-1950s. The new documentary, *Sounds of the Desert*, explores the group's fusion of avant-garde music, cosmic philosophy, ritual, and spectacle.
The film follows Abshalom Ben Shlomo, who died in 2024, and Allen, unfolding through interviews, archival footage, and live performance. To the sounds of the Arkestra’s music, the documentary travels through landscapes shaped by and tied to its sound, including the Arkestral House in Philadelphia, Chicago, a forest in Lithuania, and the Negev Desert. It is described as a musical and visual journey rather than a traditional narrative.
Lithuanian filmmaker Emilija Škarnulytė wrote, directed, produced, and executive produced the film via Mirror Matter Productions. She reveals a personal connection that grounded the project: a decade-long friendship with Ben Shlomo. "My decade-long friendship with Abshalom Ben Shlomo opened a path into the Arkestra’s universe, where music holds memory, and imagination makes other ways of living possible," Škarnulytė says.
The film is set to world premiere on Nov. 18 in the Rebels With a Cause Competition at the 30th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Estonia. The ensemble is noted as a foundational influence on Afrofuturism and imagining outer space as a realm of Black freedom. The development producer behind the doc is Norway’s Mer Film, known for recent festival hits like *Pillion* and *Sentimental Value*. Škarnulytė shares that she wanted the film to "move through that universe, listening to the echoes between people, landscapes and histories." She explains that "The Arkestra created a cosmos not to turn away from the world, but to find the strength to live within it and transform it." The narrative focuses on how the group built their unique world, rather than on external scandal.
The filmmaker also reflects on the concept of home within the Arkestra's context. "I learned that home is not always somewhere we return to; sometimes it is something we create from what we carry," she says. The documentary aims to show how the Arkestra's vision provided a shelter, with Škarnulytė concluding, "In a time of displacement and division, their music reminds me that we can still build a shelter together, one that travels with us wherever we go."
