Acclaimed video artist and filmmaker Kahlil Joseph has transformed his groundbreaking artistic vision into a feature-length documentary that challenges traditional notions of news media and Black representation. Known for his innovative work on music videos for Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, and Beyoncé's "Lemonade," Joseph has now created "BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions," an ambitious documentary that reimagines how Black stories are told through media.
The film serves as an extension of Joseph's 30-minute video installation "BLKNWS" and represents a comprehensive exploration of Black literature, art, and politics. Using a documentary format that spontaneously blends Afrofuturist imagery, news segments, music snippets, YouTube videos, movies, and interview clips with Black academics, thinkers, and journalists, the work breaks down both temporal and cultural boundaries to provide what Joseph calls "as near a comprehensive survey of Black reality as cinematically possible."
The project draws its conceptual foundation from W.E.B. Du Bois's "Encyclopedia Africana," which was later fully realized by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Anthony Appiah decades after Du Bois's death. This encyclopedic approach serves as the film's loose framework for referencing influential figures including Saidiya Hartman (one of the film's five writers), Marcus Garvey, and Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. The collaborative nature of the project mirrors musical composition, with Joseph serving as the primary artist while filmmakers Garrett Bradley, Raven Jackson, Arthur Jafa, and Kaneza Schaal contribute as featured directors on various segments.
In a recent interview during the New York Film Festival, Joseph explained his interest in news as a medium began around 2016 when he first understood "how powerful the format was as a moving image." The inspiration came during a casual evening with director Ryan Coogler, who was editing the first "Creed" film at the time. "We were watching the news, and we were making some comment as to how Black people were portrayed in the news and how it's always been bad," Joseph recalled. "I remember saying, jokingly: We should do the news ourselves."
Initially conceived as a collaboration with Coogler, the project became Joseph's sole endeavor when Coogler moved on to direct "Black Panther." Joseph pitched the concept as a 30-minute show to four or five major media companies and platforms, leveraging his post-"Lemonade" success to secure meetings. However, every company declined the proposal. "All I was asking for was money to do a 30-minute show," Joseph said. "I remember in all those meetings I could tell they were like: Wait. You want to do news next? No one said yes."
Undeterred by the rejections, Joseph began developing a prototype using online material and shooting news segments with friends, including actors Amandla Stenberg and curator Helen Molesworth. When the art world embraced the project, Joseph conducted extensive research into the historical, formal, and intellectual aspects of news media, which deepened his understanding of the project's implications.
Joseph's approach to news fundamentally challenges conventional definitions. "Technically the news is something you didn't know before you knew it. Which is a lot of shit," he explained. "Most people know what they know and everything else technically is news." This perspective led him to realize that news isn't limited to current events but encompasses historical information as well. "If I told you about something that happened in the 1800s, you could literally say: That's news to me."
The filmmaker draws parallels between his work and the success of YouTube as an educational platform, noting that people are natural learners who consume lengthy educational content online. "I don't know about you, but we'll end up watching a two-hour YouTube clip talking about the most random knowledge base from some guy or some woman in some other part of the world who's done all this research and connected all these dots, but we have a hard time sometimes watching a movie," Joseph observed.
Central to Joseph's vision is the recognition that Black communities have never had their equivalent of CNN or The New York Times, yet remain remarkably well-informed. "Even a lot of the uneducated class of folks are remarkably well-informed," he noted. "I had to ask myself: How is that? Why is that? How are we getting this information?" This inquiry led him to expand the definition of news to include stand-up comedy, memes, songs, concerts, and historical interviews, provided they're given proper context.
The film's collaborative structure reflects its musical influences, with Joseph describing the editing process as similar to "deciding the best sequencing of these tracks." Working with directors Bradley, Jackson, Jafa, and Schaal, Joseph noted that all collaborators were "relatively new to making films," which created "openness to what a movie could be." The directors came from diverse backgrounds including poetry, documentary, fine art, and theater, bringing cross-disciplinary perspectives to the project.
Remarkably, the major Hollywood studio involved provided complete creative freedom without oversight. "It was exciting, especially because a major Hollywood studio was allowing this to happen without any oversight," Joseph said. "The original studios that were involved didn't have any say in what we were doing." Each director worked independently on their segments, with Joseph comparing the process to "musicians who collaborate on someone's album [who] don't really know what the rest of the album will sound like."
Cinematographer Bradford Young played a crucial role in unifying the visual language across different directors' contributions. For Raven Jackson's segments, she collaborated with Jomo Frey, who also shot "Nickel Boys" and "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt." This created unique situations where multiple crews worked simultaneously in the same location with the same actors but different visual approaches.
The film's sound design presented particular challenges due to the variety of source materials, including cellphone footage, YouTube videos, and news clips. Joseph worked with multiple audio engineers and even consulted album engineers to achieve the proper sound mastering. "At one point I even approached an album engineer to master it in stereo because it kept feeling too much like a movie and it obviously doesn't play like a movie," he explained.
Joseph's approach to sound reflects his understanding of how most people will experience the film. Acknowledging that "99.9% of the people who will ever see my film will see it on their television or laptop," he prioritized home viewing over theatrical presentation. Drawing inspiration from Jimi Hendrix, who mastered his music for transistor radios because that's what GIs listened to, Joseph focused on "meeting people where they're at."
The project ultimately represents Joseph's vision of how Black communities can redefine media representation and challenge traditional journalism boundaries. By incorporating diverse voices, experimental formats, and cross-disciplinary approaches, "BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions" offers a revolutionary perspective on both documentary filmmaking and news media, establishing new possibilities for how marginalized communities can control their own narratives.
