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Neptune Frost

(Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, 2021, Rwanda) 

Introduced by Iyana Hill, Urban Arts Space

A boy looks up he is wearing a red shirt with a high collar and has braids and dots on either side of his eyes.

This groundbreaking Afrofuturist musical follows a Rwandan intersex hacker and escaped miner as they form an anticolonialist collective—and a cosmic connection.

Set between poles of past and present, dreams and waking life, male and female, Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering experience—and a call to reclaim technology for political change. The mining of tech-critical mineral coltan is largely unregulated throughout central Africa. In the hilltops of Burundi, a group of escaped miners form a revolutionary computer hacker collective. From their headquarters in an e-waste dump, they attempt to overthrow the regime that’s exploiting the region’s citizens and natural resources. When an intersex runaway named Neptune and Matalusa, an escaped coltan miner, find each other through cosmic forces, their connection becomes the spark that catalyzes the campaign. Multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams and Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman codirect this stunning vision, described as “pure cinematic power” by the Hollywood Reporter. In Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Swahili, French, and English with English subtitles. (105 mins., DCP)

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IMAGE CAPTION
Neptune Frost, courtesy of Kino Lorber Films.

"Moving as well as mind-bending."
A.O. Scott, New York Times

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About the speaker

Iyana Hill chevron-down chevron-up

​​​​Iyana Hill is an artist, curator, and community organizer from Columbus, Ohio, and an exhibitions and education intern at Urban Arts Space. As an artist she focuses on the liberation of Black people and the Black experience through the mediums of photography and ceramics. Her curatorial and community programming honors Black culture and thinks about accessibility, immersion, and arts equity to articulate and honor Blackness. She is the creator of Irrepressible Soul, which is a project, model, and collective that honors Black creativity through immersive experiences.​​​ 

COPROMOTIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Getaway Brewing
Seventh Son
Antiques on High

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
National Endowment for the Arts 
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Ohio Department of Development

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family 
Institute of Museum and Library Services

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc 
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme 
The Columbus Foundation 
Axium Packaging 
Nationwide Foundation 
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Mike and Paige Crane 
Nancy Kramer 
Ohio State Energy Partners 
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection 
Larry and Donna James 
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang 
Bruce and Joy Soll 
Melissa Gilliam and William Grobman 
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle 
Jones Day 
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Neptune Frost