A new documentary on the Sun Ra Arkestra will world premiere on November 18 at the 30th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia, with its trailer arriving on November 5.
Sounds of the Desert comes from Lithuanian writer, director, producer and artist Emilija Skarnulyte, whose earlier film Burial won wide praise. The film follows two members of the Arkestra, Abshalom Ben Shlomo, who died in 2024, and Marshall Allen, who is still performing at age 102.
The film unfolds through interviews, archival footage and live performance, set against landscapes that mattered to the Arkestra's journey. Skarnulyte wrote, directed, produced and executive produced the film through her company Mirror Matter Productions, with Mer Film of Norway as development producer. The Hollywood Reporter premiered the trailer exclusively on November 5.
The Arkestra was founded by Sun Ra in Chicago in the mid 1950s. Over the decades it fused avant garde jazz with cosmic philosophy, ritual and spectacle, becoming one of the longest running ensembles in jazz and a foundational influence on Afrofuturism and on imagining outer space as a realm of Black freedom.
Sun Ra, born Herman Blount, led the Arkestra from the 1950s until his death in 1993, building a sound and a visual world entirely his own. After his death the band carried on under Marshall Allen, who joined the Arkestra in the 1950s and has kept its music alive on stages around the world into his second century.
Skarnulyte has described her friendship with Ben Shlomo as a gateway into the Arkestra's universe, a world where music preserves memory and imagination opens other ways of living. The film treats that universe as a living thing, not a museum piece, following Allen as he still plays and the band as it still tours.
The premiere sits in the Rebels With a Cause competition at Tallinn, a festival that has become a home for bold nonfiction. For jazz lovers and for anyone who follows Black music history, the film is one of the season's most anticipated documentaries.
The Talk Lounge will follow Sounds of the Desert from its Tallinn premiere
and report on wider release plans as they are announced.
and report on wider release plans as they are announced.
