‘Sounds of the Desert’ Documentary Spotlights Two Sun Ra Arkestra Members Ahead of Tallinn Premiere

A new documentary is turning its lens on two members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, one of the longest-running avant-garde ensembles in jazz, exploring their lives, their music and the cosmic visions that animated their work.

Sounds of the Desert comes from Lithuanian writer, director, producer and artist Emilija Škarnulytė, whose previous film was Burial. The documentary follows Abshalom Ben Shlomo, who died in 2024, and Marshall Allen, who is still performing at age 102.

Described as a cinematic meditation on the avant-garde musicians, the film unfolds through interviews, archival footage and live performance. Set to the music of the Sun Ra Arkestra, it moves through landscapes shaped by and tied to that sound, including the Arkestral House of Sun Ra in Philadelphia, the city of Chicago, a forest in Lithuania and the Negev Desert.

The film is set to world premiere on Nov. 18 in the Rebels With a Cause Competition at the 30th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, known as PÖFF, in Estonia. The festival slot places the documentary among the event’s most unconventional entries later this month.

The Sun Ra Arkestra was founded by Sun Ra in Chicago in the mid-1950s, bringing together avant-garde music, cosmic philosophy, ritual and spectacle. The ensemble became a foundational influence on Afrofuturism and on the imagining of outer space as a realm of Black freedom.

Škarnulytė wrote, directed, produced and executive produced the film through her company Mirror Matter Productions. The development producer on the documentary is Norway’s Mer Film, whose recent festival credits include Harry Lighton’s Pillion (2026), Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (2025) and Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With the Needle (2025).

“I learned that home is not always somewhere we return to; sometimes it is something we create from what we carry,” Škarnulytė said. “My decade-long friendship with Abshalom Ben Shlomo opened a path into the Arkestra’s universe, where music holds memory, and imagination makes other ways of living possible.”

“I wanted Sounds of the Desert to move through that universe, listening to the echoes between people, landscapes and histories,” she added. “The Arkestra created a cosmos not to turn away from the world, but to find the strength to live within it and transform it.”

“In a time of displacement and division, their music reminds me that we can still build a shelter together, one that travels with us wherever we go,” the filmmaker concluded.

The Hollywood Reporter has premiered the trailer for Sounds of the Desert exclusively, offering a first look at the musical and visual journey the film promises ahead of its festival debut.