(The Root) — The highly regarded film director Kahlil Joseph pushes the artistic envelope in the promo video for Until the Quiet Comes, the upcoming new album from Los Angeles producer Flying Lotus.
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The short film, set in a Watts housing project in Los Angeles, explores Joseph’s imaginative interpretation of death, violence, innocence and real life in the West Coast hood. By showing borderline gruesome and button-pushing images — such as a man seeming to be resurrected after being shot and young boy lying in a river of his own blood — he shares an arresting yet tragic vision of city life.
Similarly, in “Black Up,” the music video of a song by Shabazz Palaces, he documents the unfiltered beauty he finds in and around the ghetto, complete with images of a young couple under the train tracks, crowded cafés, dead black men in a field, bikers in the street, the line outside the corner store and men carrying around oversized boom boxes.
Many of Joseph’s other films follow this pattern. His craft and expertise lie in making not “music videos” but, rather, videos that match what he sees and feels the music’s messages are. More of Joseph’s work is available on his website.
Check out “Until the Quiet Comes” below:
Previous recommendation: Educators Talk Black Male Achievement.
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