After a stormy debut at Sundance, where conflicting cuts were shown to critics, pulled from the line-up, and ultimately saved by producer James Shani (as he once did with The Apprentice, later an Oscar nominee), BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions arrives at TIFF’s 50th edition in a far quieter mood. The Sundance controversy gave this experimental work an unusual spotlight, turning it into one of that festival’s hottest tickets and most talked-about titles, with critics hailing it as a major work of art. Since then it has screened smoothly at other major festivals, including Berlinale, and now lands in Toronto with steadier, more tempered expectations.
The film grows directly out of Joseph’s earlier video-art installation BLKNWS. A loose narrative frame now unfolds aboard a ship called The Nautica, its voyage serving as a guide through a modern version of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, first envisioned by W. E. B. Du Bois and later completed by other scholars. Joseph positions the film as a contemporary counterpart, a vast record of African experience across art, science, politics, and culture, blending fact and speculation to restore stories too often erased from history.
From there the film expands into a collage-like essay, weaving archival footage, staged reenactments, viral clips, and Afrofuturist imagery. Joseph employs methods as wide-ranging as animation, reenactments, and found footage, all carried by a carefully curated score. As director, writer, and producer, he compares the project to an album, with each scene designed to stand on its own and experienced in almost any order, much like the installation itself.
At times the effect feels like the closing montages from last year’s The Nickel Boys expanded into a full-length feature. Sometimes it is deeply moving, other times disorienting. Along the way, the film critiques media itself while seeking to reconstruct Black history on its own terms.
By design the work resists cohesion. Its chapter-like structure can be striking in fragments yet exhausting as a whole. The ambition is clear in how much it tries to encompass, but it is not the ultimate masterpiece some were claiming earlier in the year. In seeking to capture such a vast cultural experience within a single feature, Joseph has created something undeniably bold and singular, though it might have benefitted from stronger balance and a clearer overall shape.
This is part of Reviews On Reels TIFF 2025 Coverage. Due to the hectic rhythm of a film festival, it may be tweaked in the future. Still courtesy of TIFF.
- 1. Sentimental Value
- 2. Hamnet
- 3. Blue Moon
- 4. Sirāt
- 5. The Testament of Ann Lee
- 45. BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
- Where to watch
- Rent or buy at Apple TV Store
- Where to watch
- Not available for streaming
Play trailer
- Original title
- BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
- Director
- Kahlil Joseph
- Genre
- Documentary
- Cast
- Shaunette Renée Wilson, Kaneza Schaal, Hope Giselle, Peter Jay Fernandez, Penny Johnson Jerald, Zora Casebere, Mohamed Dione, Tony Okungbowa
- Screenwriter
- Kahlil Joseph, Saidiya Hartman, Irvin Hunt, Onye Anyanwu, Kristen Adele Calhoun, Christina Sharpe, Madebo Fatunde, Kaneza Schaal
- Composer
- Klein
- Cinematography
- Bradford Young
- Editor
- Kahlil Joseph, Luke Lynch, Paul Rogers
- Country
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $6 million