The blaxploitation genre never ceases to surprise me the number of times it throws up truly crazy films. This one appears to be clearly aimed at the stoned-out-of-their-heads demographic - it's a combination of blaxploitation, sci-fi, concert footage and social commentary. It's also a vehicle for avant-garde jazzman Sun Ra, who, bizarrely, plays himself as a being from outer space who lands his spaceship in the middle of the San Francisco ghetto and tries to convince the black population there to follow him and colonise another planet, leaving the shackles of Earth behind. Sun Ra goes around everywhere donning pharaoh robes and headgear and even indulges in a Seventh Seal inspired Tarot game with a pimp like character in the middle of the desert. The storyline is very strange and loosely told, while the musical numbers involve Sun Ra and his Myth Science Arkestra knocking out their very weird African inflected experimental jazz. It's a pretty baffling experience but one that is worth checking out.
Review of Space Is the Place
