This film directed by Nigerian-British filmmaker Jenn Nkiru just won the PRIX CANAL+ award at this year's Clermont Film Festival and after watching it, you'll understand why.

Rebirth Is Necessary is not just a film—it's accessible high art. It was included in Nowness' Black Star series in 2017, which showed rising directors their version of Afrofuturism on screen.

Nkiru folded ethereal portraits with striking archival footage to explore the black experience.

"I was thinking about so much while making Rebirth Is Necessary—the summation of my loaded feelings and questions over the last few years. I was thinking about black people, the black experience—which is my constant—and the idea of black universality," she says to Nowness. "Creating this piece felt like therapy. It's where I got to reconcile my worlds—the material and the spiritual, the human and divine. This film is jazz; black magic in motion. I hope it can be a source of inspiration, affirmation and healing to others as it has been to me, especially the black diaspora."

This film indeed made our Friday and shows us that Nkiru is one to watch this year.

Watch Rebirth Is Necessary below.