The Magic City: Birmingham According to Sun Ra (2025)

On May 22, 1914, Herman Poole Blount arrived on Earth in Birmingham, Alabama. He would become known many years later as Sun Ra and would become one of the most extraordinary and prolific jazz musicians of his century, as well as the founder of a strange cosmic philosophy.

“The Magic City” known as Birmingham was a segregated city in the industrial South. Hostile at first glance, it was there that Sun Ra laid the foundations of his mystical thinking and his music, seeing in his city an incredible world full of signs. He left it for Chicago at the age of 32 and did not return until 1992, shortly before his death.

Portraying this artist as a young man as much as portraying a city, The Magic City tells the story of Sun Ra’s early years in this urban universe that was both political and magical, common and fantastic, disturbing and fascinating.

Directors – Guillaume Maupin, Pablo Guarise

Scenario – Guillaume Maupin, Pablo Guarise

Director of Photography – Alexi Van Hennecker

Editors – Justin McKenzie Peers

Producers – Vincent Metzinger, Beata Saboova

Runtime: 100 minutes

Q&A to follow screening with Guillaume Maupin