The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (The Ark) has been a legend in Los Angeles’s avant-garde jazz community for over sixty years. But since the death of its founder, pianist and composer Horace Tapscott, the band has spent the last three decades ebbing with the tide of history. Following the group’s young drummer and new bandleader Mekala Session as he struggles to honor his musical forebears while establishing a new path forward, KEEPING TIME is a kaleidoscopic audiovisual homage to musicians who pass on the magic and the communities that nourish them.

Premiered at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2023, available for streaming on The Criterion Channel.

Directed by Darol Olu Kae

Production Company: Somesuch and LFR Productions