Saul Williams has been an artist I (Nicole) have excitedly followed from poems to albums to Broadway musicals and beyond for about two decades now. His album Amethyst Rock Star, released way back in the spring of 2001, just about three months before attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon would shift the course of lives in my city and across the globe, and occupies special positions in my heart and brain. The specifics of that can be the subject of an essay another day, but suffice to say that the album was there for me over a prolonged, difficult period and was a sustained source of provocative hope and genuine, needed comfort at a time when not much else provided any such thing for me.
I’ve been a fan and admirer of Williams’ work ever since and am thrilled to support his film directing debut, the truly independent, timely, and sure to be visually stunning Neptune Frost.
Neptune Frost continues and develops the story and world of Martyr Loser King, Williams’ last album and one of my faves of 2016. It’s about a village in Burundi made of old computer parts that is home to “the home of the world’s most subversive hacking collective inventively exposing the gluttonous feast on natural resources from belly of the beast using the gutsiest platform takeovers in the history of a mystery…” What happens when these plucky heroes cross the line from “beloved hackers” to “first-world terrorists” in an increasingly authoritarian world?
I want to find out.
Oh, it’s also a love story. And a musical. Natch.
…And there’s more. Read about the album and graphic novel components of the story, watch the absolutely gorgeous trailer that has already been shot in Rwanda with an entirely Rwandan and Burundian cast and crew, find out who else is on the film’s team and what their plans are, and see the amazing backer rewards being offered for as little as one dollar given towards the project all right here on the Kickstarter page.
Take a look and back if you can. I definitely want to see this movie.