I Went To The Crossroad

    Robert Johnson sand about a story about a legend well known today. Whether true or false, Johnson's story has resonated to the present day and will resonate even further through history. The story goes that Johnson went to some crossroad, somewhere, and sold his soul to the devil to be able to play the guitar to an extreme level. Johnson went to the crossroads to seek help from a power greater than he, reaching beyond the plane he exists in as well as in a way beyond the time he exists in.

    The Last Angel of History(Akomfrah 1996) is about a character simply known as the "Data Thief" who seeks to go to the past to find answers needed for the future. Just like Johnson did, the "Data Thief" seeks his answers at a crossroads, wanting to find artifacts from a time he doesn't exist in. The film speaking on looking to your past to figure out your future heavily resonates with afrofuturism, which of course heavily deals with the African Diaspora in a future context.

    The film also acts as a documentary in ways of exploring the development of afrofuturism over time, as early as the late 1800s. The film includes multiple interviews from prominent afrofuturists such as George Clinton, Octavia Butler, DJ Spooky, etc. Sun Ra and his ideologies are mentioned, although he isn't himself featured in the film. Just like Sun Ra argued, the movie also argues that music has a certain power to influence people and that music itself is a large driving force of afrofuturism, helping connect the past, present and future.