‘BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions’ Review: Khalil Joseph’s Rich, Impressionistic Docu-Fiction Essay Reimagines the World

variety.com:

Siddhant Adlakha In “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions” — which was reinstated at the Sundance Film Festival after a dispute over its edit — director Khalil Joseph radically reimagines the world through a Black lens, while self-reflexively observing the difficulties of doing so.

The film is a pulsing, essayistic docu-fiction piece that defies categorization. It unfolds partially on a futuristic, polygonal transatlantic vessel boarded by a journalist (Shaunette Renée Wilson) and an arts academic (Keneza Schaal, playing a fictionalized version of real curator Funmilayo Akechukwu).

However, this narrative framing device — which often loops back on itself, as a dreamlike film within the film — is merely an anchor for a more elliptical, esoteric narrative about personal and political history.

Co-written by numerous artists and academics, the film is as much about Joseph’s own tumultuous family history — upon which he reflects through photo collages and anecdotes told exclusively in subtitles, without the aid of voiceover — as it is about the life and influence of sociologist and Pan-African activist W.