Afrofuturism is a topic that we have addressed on numerous occasions on Media Diversified. Now, it makes its way to the BFI. Film critic, journalist, and film programmer, Ashley Clark has curated Inside Afrofuturism; a short season of movies, brought together under the afrofuturism rubric.
I spoke with him about his inspiration for the programme, and afrofuturism’s place in the cultural firmament:
Shane Thomas: When were you first aware of afrofuturism as a concept?
Ashley Clark: I first became aware of it when I was studying African American history at the University of Sussex. The term was originally coined by Mark Dery in his essay Black to the Future. I was fascinated by the concept that African Americans are – in a sense – the descendants of alien abductees, in that they’ve been taken from a place, and transported to a new place with rampant discrimination and restrictions…
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