The Magic City: Birmingham according to Sun Ra (2025)

Together with Amsterdam music platform we will go back to the early years of Sun Ra. Before the world (and the cosmos) came to know him as the Afrofuturist pioneer of "space jazz", he was born Herman Poole Blount in Birmingham, deep in the heart of Alabama. The Belgian documentary The Magic City - Birmingham According to Sun Ra sheds light on how this often-overlooked yet magical music city helped shape the enigmatic visionary in his formative years. Filmmakers Guillaume Maupin and Pablo Guarise closely involved the city and its residents in telling not just Sun Ra's story, but that of their community. Inevitably, that story is marked by a legacy of slavery, segregation, and racism. Yet Sun Ra's gaze remained fixed on a more harmonious future. As he says at the start of the film: "My story is not part of history. Because history repeats itself, but my story is endless." Melkweg often hosts different types of programmes at the same time, such as concerts, club nights and films. Please note that there may occasionally be some noise pollution from other programmes during the screening.