The Last Angel of History: Music, Technology, and the Body

    The film The Last Angel of History (1996) follows the character of “the data thief” who travels across space and time in search of the key to his future. The film explores several core concepts of the Afrofuturist movement, such as the connection between music, technology, and the body. A memorable quote for me from the film was, “The line between social reality and science fiction is an optical illusion”. The Last Angel of History explores the parallels between actual history of African diaspora people, and the concept of alien abduction or cosmic futures. 

An interesting aspect of the film to me was the fragmented, dislocated nature of the film, and the way it reflected the fragmented, dislocated experience of Black people. Laura Marks commented on the use of montage in the film to produce contrast. This contrast releases energy which is felt by viewers of the film, similar to the way that techno music produces a bodily response in listeners. The context of the film and the time period it was created in also made it more interesting to me. The first web page was made only a few years prior, and the film coincided with the launch of the Mac OS operating system, which is featured in the film several times. The world was on the edge of the technological revolution. I thought the use of montage and sound in the The Last Angel of History worked well to reflect the storyline of the data thief and the concepts presented by the artists interviewed.