Image
An aerial view of an entire film set of colorful rooms built in black box theater.

Ephraim Asili's Commissioned Film ‘The Inheritance’ to Screen Nov 16–20

Access is available exclusively to the RPI community
News Type
News

Special physically-distanced screenings are available for Rensselaer classes of the EMPAC-commissioned film The Inheritance by Ephraim Asili during the week of 16-20 November. 

In addition to these in-person class-specific screenings, all Rensselaer students, faculty, and staff can request to watch The Inheritance online and we will provide a link.

Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance weaves histories of the West Philadelphia–based MOVE Organization, the Black Arts Movement, and dramatizations of the life of the filmmaker when he was a member of a Black activist collective. Centering on what Asili describes as a “speculative reenactment” of his time in a West Philadelphia collective, the actors scripted lives on set are entwined with cameos by MOVE's Debbie Africa, Mike Africa Sr., and Mike Africa Jr., and poet-activists Sonia Sanchez and Ursula Rucker.

After the EMPAC preview of The Inheritance on April 9, 2020 was postponed due to COVID-19 protocols, it premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and had its US premiere at the New York film festival US premiere on Friday 19 September. 

 

Production still: The Inheritance film set from Studio 1's grid during principle photography in June, 2019. Photo: Mick Bello/EMPAC.