A CULT FILM BY PROXY

Abstract

This paper examines the film Space is the Place, a 1974 science‐fiction film starring jazz maverick Sun Ra. I determine why the film has attained cult status, and demonstrate how an understanding of Sun Ra's particular belief system helps to comprehend this text. Space is the Place has become a cult movie, I argue, due to its reception trajectory, but also because of its particular aesthetic features. In terms of the former, I pay particular attention to changing intellectual attitudes towards African American identities, as well as Sun Ra's increasing cultic status across a range of musical fandoms. It is this status within the musical world that leads to Space is the Place becoming what I call a ‘cult film by proxy’. Nevertheless, I also argue that textual features—such as excess, generic hybridity and ‘trashiness’—cement and contribute to its continuing cult reputation.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Warren Buckland, Kate Egan and an anonymous reader, for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Notes

1. For reviews of the DVD release see Chen (2003), Eshun (2003b) and Johnson (2004).

2. The Arkestra sometimes recorded under slightly different variations on this name, such as the Intergalactic Solar Arkestra, the appellation they adopted for Space is the Place. The line‐up of the Arkestra was constantly changing, though there were a number of key members who remained in the band for long periods, including John Gilmore, Marshall Allen and June Tyson. The Arkestra have continued to perform and record after Ra's death under the leadership of Marshall Allen.

3. Ra often stressed this in a number of interviews, including within the documentary A Joyful Noise (1980), directed by Robert Mugge.

4. In actual fact, producer Jim Newman has stated that he was originally going to make a concert film, so these performances may actually be repurposed footage (Newman & Coney 2003). I should also point out that there is one sequence which is more centrally encompassed within the diegesis, when Ra and the Arkestra perform a concert for earth people.

5. When Sun Ra and the Arkestra first arrive on earth, Ra emits a range of alien textures from his Minimoog, which are thus diegetically encoded. For the most part, however, such sounds are used non‐diegetically.

6. This is indicated by user comments on both the Internet Movie Database and Amazon.com.

7. Paul Youngquist (2003) has described how Sun Ra had a significant influence on Amiri Baraka's thought, in that he became much more focused on themes of space and blackness after associating with Ra.

8. Between 11 and 13 June a conference entitled ‘Black to the Future’ was held at Seattle, which also featured a screening of Brother From Another Planet and some short films. On 17, 23 and 27 October 2004, ‘Black Science: Visions of the Future’ featured film screenings at the Rio Cinema in Dalston, with talks and music at the Triangle in Hackney.

9. The ICA showed Space is the Place between 23 April and 4 May; the Sun Ra themed night was on 5 September 2005, and featured a screening of Don Letts' documentary on Ra, Brother From Another Planet (2005), followed by a club night featuring Ra‐related music and visuals. Space is the Place was also shown as part of the Scottish music‐based festival, ‘Triptych’, playing in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen in spring 2004. Screenings of Space is the Place continue to sporadically show in the UK and the USA, making it far easier to see the film in public now than it was at the time of its release.

10. Phil Niblock has also made a short film of a Sun Ra performance, The Magic Sun (1966), in which imagery is abstracted and cut‐up in a rather experimental manner.

11. Whilst he does not mention it, Corrigan's ideas here are similar to those developed by Kristin Thompson in her article ‘The Concept of Cinematic Excess’ (Thompson 2004), first published in 1977.

12. Sconce uses the word ‘paracinema’ more frequently than ‘trash’ films, though he is referring to trash cinema. I am using trash cinema as this is still the most common appellation for such films, whilst Sconce's use of ‘paracinema’ refers more directly to the particular reading strategies used to appreciate such films.

13. Anger began making Lucifer Rising in the 1960s but footage was stolen; parts of the only remaining footage made their way into his 1969 film, Invocation of My Demon Brother. He then remade Lucifer Rising throughout the next decade; though it was not completed until 1980, shorter versions of the film were being shown much earlier in the decade.

14. Schaefer uses the term ‘exploitation’ in a ‘strict’ sense: films made by small, independent companies, which featured ‘controversial’ subject matter (often relating to sex or drugs). He does admit that the term expanded in the 1950s, which is why he uses the term ‘classical exploitation cinema’ (pp. 4–5). However we use the term, Space is the Place still conforms to the production typology he outlines, as do a number of post‐war ‘exploitation’ films.

15. Although Plexifilm does not only release music‐related products (claiming that its goals include the aim to ‘expand the variety of films available on DVD and to champion lesser‐known‐yet‐amazing indie directors’), its DVD releases are primarily music‐related. For more information on Plexifilm, visit its site at http://www.plexifilm.com/index.html