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. Director Christine Turner takes us on an illuminating journey through the life of this multi-faceted artist, gracefully balancing recollections from the Arkestra’s still-devout band members and dancers with insightful interviews from music scholars, and unforgettable film and performance footage of Sun Ra himself. The result is a portrait – informative, inspiring, and mind-bending – of a man whose audacious vision, otherworldly imagination, and uncompromising artistry helped shape not only the sound of jazz, but the cultural landscape of the 20th century and beyond.
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.
Sun Ra reached back in time to ancient Egypt to claim civilization as Black and fused it with the dawn of the Space Age to assert Blackness as the very nature of the “omniverse.” Compelling and strange, he claimed to have been “teleported” to Saturn, where he was told that the world would descend into chaos and that he must speak through music. Though his “Earth departure day” may have occurred more than three decades ago, his influence continues to grow with each successive generation.
Sun Ra: Do The Impossible screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, January 30, 2026 In-Person only at 7PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901! Rutgers University Professor Alex Zamalin, who appears in the film and is a Sun Ra expert, will be doing a Q+A with the audience after the screening. Get more info and buy tickets here.
The 44th Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 23-February 22, 2026. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. Most of the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person when both are offered. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. For more info on the Film festival go here: https://newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2026.eventive.org/welcome
