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After financier Participant (“Spotlight”) pulled multimedia artist Kahlil Joseph‘s film “BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions” from the Sundance Film Festival on the eve of its world premiere, a savior in the form of James Shani acquired the film from Participant. It will now screen Monday at 9pm MT in the festival’s NEXT program. He will seek a co-distributor.
“We were deeply disappointed that they were pulling ‘BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions,'” Sundance Director Eugene Hernandez told IndieWire. “It is a radiant and immersive cinematic experience.”
Shani, a 36-year-old former talent manager, launched indie production and distribution company Rich Spirit in 2024. That company co-distributed “The Apprentice” with Briarcliff Entertainment, which earned two Oscar nominations last week. The film has so far grossed $9 million worldwide.
Legal representatives for Participant pulled the film from Sundance January 22, the day before the festival began, alleging that the film was different from the final cut that Joseph initially delivered. Joseph was also invited to screen the film at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it was set to screen next month.
Long in development, “BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions” is an expansion of Joseph’s 2019 art exhibition “BLKNWS” as well as a 2020 Sundance New Frontier project described by the festival as “a news creation machine.” The film, which combines fiction and non-fiction elements, has been pursued by other festivals but was only recently completed.
In a statement, Sundance said: “Sundance Film Festival is overjoyed to welcome ‘BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions’ back to the Festival lineup. This boundary-pushing, relentlessly innovative art deserves to be shared after years of work by the filmmaking team, and the Festival is proud to have it as part of our programming.”
Participant’s legal letter claimed that A24 dropped out of the project after Joseph failed to deliver a completed cut of the film, causing Participant “significant damages” by no longer having its co-financier on the project. Participant ceased formal operations last April, though it still exists as a holding company for Participant’s movie library. “BLKNWS” was one of the studio’s last unreleased titles.
Joseph and producer Onye Anyanwu, in a statement to Variety, thanked Participant for “their willingness to relinquish ownership of the film, a gesture that allows audiences to finally experience what we’ve spent years crafting alongside so many contributing artists.This moment has been a long time coming, and we are thrilled to finally share this with the world.”
— Brian Welk contributed to this story.
English (US) ·