Sun Ra: Do The Impossible

Poet, philosopher, Egyptologist, bandleader. Jazz visionary Sun Ra was all of these – and more. With his ever-evolving band, the Sun Ra Arkestra, he produced more than 200 albums, stretching the boundaries of free-form jazz while weaving ancient Egypt, interstellar metaphors, and scientific musings into a singular musical and spiritual vision of Afrofuturism that continues to reverberate across generations. 

After premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival and a long run of screenings at other festivals and events around the country, the film was shown as part of the long-running American Masters series on PBS.

Herman Poole Blount was born on May 22, 1914, in Birmingham, Alabama, and departed this earth on May 30, 1993, as Sun Ra.

Along the way he became a conscientious objector, legally changed his name to Le Sony’r Ra, forged a vision of a Black Space Age future, created a big band that toured the world and continues to this day, wrote over 1000 jazz compositions, issued more than 200 self-produced records, pioneered the use of electronic keyboards, and published volumes of broadsheets and poetry.

I believe it is genuinely a mischaracterization to speak of one Sun Ra, right? At any given time, there was a whole bunch more.
— Fred Moten

Afternoon Inc. handled all design, typography, archival montages, and selected image and collage sequences. In keeping with the SR way, the system is ‘no system’ I embraced the idea of improv, allowing my first thoughts to be final thoughts, conjuring

Sun Ra’s visionary approach has too often been written off as quixotic or superfluous, but Do the Impossible expounds upon its subject with tender admiration.

— Jessie Carsten, Portland Mercury

When I was first brought on board, the structure of the film was quite different, with 12 “chapters” dealing with sections of Sun Ra’s biography, philosophy,  and terminology. I used those as an opportunity to stretch out and see what was possible/impossible. As the edit progressed, many of them were consolidated or eliminated, but the initial looseness and freedom remained intact throughout the process.

This animation of the poem “In Orbit” by Sun Ra was one of many items left on the cutting room floor.

Trailer edit by Netflix, using graphics from the film.

Director and Editor: Christine Turner
Editor: Steven Golliday
Executive Producers: Stanley Nelson, Michael Kantor, Bradford Smith
Associate Producer: Talia Moore
Archival Producer: Peter Nauffts
Art Direction, Animation: Matt Eller
Cinematography: Othello Banaci
Additional Editor: Adam Kurnitz, ACE