Sundance

The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.” Legendary poet Nikki Giovanni’s revelation is a launching pad to an inspiring exploration of her life and legacy. Through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings of her poetry, and impressions of space, Giovanni urges us to imagine a future where Black women lead, and equity is a reality.

Directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (American Promise, The Changing Same) craft a vision fit for the radical imagination of Nikki Giovanni. Present-day Giovanni reckons with the inevitable passing of time, while an evocative melding of vérité and archival images act as openings into her mindscape, transcending time and place. Brewster and Stephenson’s approach is imaginative and dreamlike, akin to the way Giovanni’s words are hair-raising in their power to summon unrealized ways of seeing. The Afro-futuristic lens honors Giovanni’s complexity and transports us on a journey through Black liberation from the perspective of one of America’s most acclaimed and beloved writers, a profound artist and activist. Next stop, Mars.

• DIRECTOR(S)

  JOE BREWSTER

  MICHÈLE STEPHENSON

• PRODUCER

  JOE BREWSTER

  MICHÈLE STEPHENSON

  TOMMY OLIVER

• EDITORS

  TERRA JEAN LONG

  LAWRENCE JACKMAN

• DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY

  GREG HARRIOTT

  ALFREDO ALCÁNTARA

  DEREK WIESEHAHN

  SHAWN PETERS

• COMPOSERS

  SAMORA PINDERHUDGES

  CHRISTOPHER PATTISHALL

• ADDITIONAL EDITORS

  REGI ALLEN

  FIONA OTWAY

  CATHERINE LEE

• SOUND DESIGN

  FRED HELM

• ONLINE EDITOR

  PATRICE BOWMAN

• ARCHIVAL PRODUCER

  HANNAH SHEPARD

• ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS

  AYANA ENOMOTO-HURST

  KIANA JACKSON

  JAROBI MOORHEAD

  ARIELLE KNIGHT