Science Fiction Against the Margins Film Series
UCLA Film & Television Archive

part of
PST: Art & Science Collide

Tech Decay: 
"A.I. Mama," "Core Dump — Dakar" and "Neptune Frost"

October 19, 2024 – 7:30 p.m.
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum

Tickets are free, no RSVP required
Box office opens at 6:30 p.m.

with
an introduction by filmmaker Asuka Lin
followed by
Q&A with filmmakers Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman
Moderated by Beandrea July, public programmer, UCLA Film & TV Archive

A.I. Mama  (U.S., 2020)

In A.I. Mama’s cyberpunk, Super 8, lo-fi world, Kei, a computer hacker, attempts to create their late mother through A.I. coding. Fueled by a childhood nostalgia to be nurtured, memories of their mother clash with a clutter of tech waste. Cables and wires take over, blending machine and human into a chaotic heap.

Core Dump — Dakar (South Africa/Senegal, 2018)

Chapter one of a four-part series, Core Dump — Dakar tracks the flow of technological materials from production to e-waste. Set in Dakar, the first segment starts at the end, examining the e-waste that ends up in African nations such as Senegal after having been sold and consumed by predominately Western countries. E-waste acts as “radioactive fossils,” telling the story of their creation and the impact on the civilians living amid this detritus. In a cyberpunk aesthetic, a robot-human hybrid narrates the current state of the technology chain and its unsustainable loop.


Neptune Frost  (U.S./Rwanda, 2021)

The black ore coltan contains heavy earth metals that are essential in electronics manufacturing, especially cellphones and computers. But extraction of the resource involves human rights violations and environmental degradation in the African nations in which it is found. The sci-fi punk musical Neptune Frost follows a group of exiled coltan miners and other outcast “hackers” who form an anti-capitalistic community in the hills of Burundi. Matalusa — a.k.a. Martyr Loser King — a coltan miner whose brother is killed by a mine supervisor, finds himself in this new community, where he discovers a strong connection with fellow outcast and intersex character Neptune. The film weaves themes of worker resistance, queer struggles and their intersections through poetry and music.

Artist and musician Saul Williams, who had worked in film as an actor and writer, made his directorial feature debut with Neptune Frost, co-directing with Anisia Uzeyman, who also was the director of photography. Originally set to be a graphic novel, the film project went into production in 2016 in neighboring Rwanda due to political unrest in Burundi that prevented shooting on location. Refugee musician Kaya Free, who stars as Matalusa, had recorded the murder of a protestor in Burundi before fleeing to Rwanda. Other Burundi refugees make up the cast and crew of the film, and their stories of resistance and survival wove their way into the storyline, filling in the emotional power Uzeyman and Williams’ narrative sought to highlight. The film’s songs are pointed, speaking of Burundi student protests and the cycle of human labor and abuse involved in mining for products used in the technology that powers the media. Neptune Frost offers some hope in a locale lit up by neon lights and repurposed cables. It is, after all, love and music that power the outsiders’ village.

View trailers here

 

Background
The Science Fiction Against the Margins film series of the UCLA Film & TV Archive is a constituent part of the Getty’s PST: Art & Science Collide, a broad range of art exhibitions and events held throughout Southern California in fall 2024. The films in the festival will be shown free of charge from October 4–December 14, 2024 at the Billy Wilder Theater of the Hammer Museum at UCLA. The series is presented in partnership with Cinema & Media Studies of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; the UCLA International Institute is a community partner of the festival.

Filmmakers showcased in Science Fiction Against the Margins occupy the “margins” of mainstream cinema in order to challenge and subvert the science fiction genre. Hollywood’s ubiquitous sci-fi story structure functions within the conventions of action-driven melodrama, resolving social issues in private, emotional and moral terms that reinforce the status quo.

While the focus is on the feature film as a global form of mass entertainment, the series also includes documentaries, shorts, video art and television episodes.

Cost : Free

Sponsor(s): UCLA International Institute, Film and Television Archive, Cinema & Media Studies