NEW FILM | JONZI D AND SAUL WILLIAMS “AUTOCORRECT”

By Apex Zero • On Featured Slider, Poetry, Reviews, Visual Arts , , , , , ,

The ori­gin­at­or of Hip Hop Dance Theatre Jonzi D has teamed up with anoth­er pion­eer of altern­at­ive Hip Hop expres­sion, poet Saul Wil­li­ams, to bring the short film “AUTO­COR­RECT” into being. Fol­low­ing up his 2020 film “Our Bod­ies Back” built to the words of the power­ful jes­sica Care moore, Jonzi has col­lab­or­ated with dan­cers, film­makers and musi­cians in Lon­don, New York and Kam­pala to inter­pret Wil­li­am’s satir­ic­al, pro­voc­at­ive prose.

The words and film employ spe­cif­ics of the last two tem­pes­tu­ous years and con­nects them to broad­er socio-polit­ic­al cur­rents and his­tor­ic­al con­texts. The film uses dif­fer­ent styles of face cov­er­ings, evok­ing plague masks, placed with­in twis­ted, sym­bol­ic, uncom­fort­able cho­reo­graphy and a mono­chro­mat­ic col­our scheme. The engross­ing sound­scape from Hip Hop-Jazz heavy­weight Soweto Kinch, forged of sax­o­phone and key­board clicks, helps the film craft an eer­ie, dysto­pi­an aes­thet­ic and feel fit­ting of the stranger than fic­tion times we’ve just passed through. The out­come is an inspired cri­tique of these times, cap­tur­ing the res­ist­ance to induced pan­ic that many com­munit­ies of the Black Atlantic have learned to deploy, due to a healthy sus­pi­cion of author­it­at­ive power born through per­son­al and col­lect­ive exper­i­ences of viol­ent oppres­sion by these forces. “AUTO­COR­RECT” is power­ful and timely, as reflec­tions on what has just happened and what might and should come next are ripe in lots of people’s minds.

 

AUTO­COR­RECT is part of a col­lec­tion of brand new films com­mis­sioned by Sadler­’s Wells from the UK’s most excit­ing Black artists work­ing in dance and film includ­ing Jonzi D, L’atisse Rhoden, House of Abso­lute, Akeim Tous­saint Buck, and Alethia Ant­o­nia. See the full col­lec­tion at https://sadl.rs/CommissionedbySadlers…

Cred­its:-

Loc­a­tion – Entebbe, Uganda:

Dan­cer & Cho­reo­graph­er – Abdul ‘Abdanger’ Kinyenya 

Cam­era – Jeff Semaganda 

 

Loc­a­tion – Brook­lyn, New York, USA:

Dan­cer & Cho­reo­graph­er – Drew Dollaz 

Cam­era – Keema Sladden 

 

Loc­a­tion – Cent­ral Lon­don, UK:

Dan­cer & Cho­reo­graph­er – Theo­philus O. Bailey-Godson 

Cam­era – Jonzi D 

 

Dir­ect­or – Jonzi D 

Assist­ant Dir­ect­or – Jane Sekonya John 

Edit­or – Ben Williams

Sound Design – Soweto Kinch 

Poetry – Saul Williams 

Cap­tions – Ben Williams

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Apex Zero

An emcee, beat­maker, film­maker and writer from Lon­don with Gren­adian roots, Apex Zero has spent his life learn­ing and liv­ing Hip Hop cul­ture, using it to inspire and affect change. Based in Beijing for a few years and reg­u­larly tour­ing the globe, Apex is well trav­elled, and uses the les­sons this provides to inform his art and out­look. He is a mem­ber of the Glob­al­Fac­tion digit­al pro­duc­tion house and the inter­na­tion­al Hip Hop col­lect­ive End of the Weak.

About Apex Zero

An emcee, beatmaker, filmmaker and writer from London with Grenadian roots, Apex Zero has spent his life learning and living Hip Hop culture, using it to inspire and affect change. Based in Beijing for a few years and regularly touring the globe, Apex is well travelled, and uses the lessons this provides to inform his art and outlook. He is a member of the GlobalFaction digital production house and the international Hip Hop collective End of the Weak.