In short: Space Is the Place (1974)

A messianic alien (Afro-futurist jazz pioneer/inventor Sun Ra) with an interesting fashion sense descends to Earth (or into our dimension) to free the souls and bodies of – American – Black people, perhaps to take them back to wherever he comes from. To achieve this, he plays a metaphorical card game with a pimp/devil figure the credits quite logically call the Overseer (Ray Johnson).

Parts of the plot also concern the attempts of a group of government agents/NASA scientists (!?) to stop a climactic Sun Ra Arkestra concert, or something.

What exactly is going on in it is sometimes difficult to say, for Space Is the Place’s plot is generally disjointed and makes a lot more sense on its metaphorical and philosophical level than as a straightforward narrative.

If one approaches it as the kind of blaxploitation flick it at least seems to be partially aligned with, one is probably going to be disappointed, for treated as such a linear movie, it is an often awkward series of clichés, staged and acted just as awkwardly.

Fortunately, the film never really appears to actually want to aim for the drive-in and 42nd Street market, so this failing isn’t much of one in practice. Watching Space is the Place with an open mind is quite an experience: between the straightforward bits, there are scenes of Ra proclaiming his Afro-Futurist philosophy, other scenes where I couldn’t help but feel I had stumbled onto a very peculiar cult indoctrination movie, bits and pieces of SF turned towards people of colour (so the sort of SF still very rare in 1974 in any form), messianic lore, metaphor turned concrete. Ra and/or director James Coney turn the Black Experience just metaphorical enough for Ra to come up with a way to change it in a world where neither politics nor rebellion seem to be viable ways to bring about change; glorious moments of Sun Ra and his Arkestra playing their still idiosyncratic, joyful and beautifully strange version of free jazz seem to fulfil this promise of freedom as much as the souls and bodies of Black people leaving Earth with Ra.