Synopsis
Set in the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts, Los Angeles, the film follows a group of young people through a series of tense, dreamlike encounters. A boy moves through the neighborhood as violence erupts around him, while dance, slow motion, and surreal transformations blur the line between physical danger and spiritual escape. Gunshots, blood, and sudden shifts in time are contrasted with moments of beauty and tenderness. The result is less a conventional narrative than an impressionistic portrait of youth, mortality, and life in a troubled environment.
Factoids & Trivia
- The piece was presented as a short film rather than a conventional promotional music video. It was released in 2012 as a visual introduction to Flying Lotus' album *Until the Quiet Comes*, which followed on October 2, 2012.
- Its soundtrack draws from three album pieces: "All the Secrets," "Sultan's Request," and "Phantasm."
- The film was shot in Nickerson Gardens, one of the largest public housing developments in Los Angeles. The location gives the project a strong sense of place while avoiding the polished look usually associated with major-label music videos.
- Flying Lotus gave the filmmaker considerable creative freedom, allowing the music to function as an atmosphere and emotional structure rather than simply as accompaniment to a literal storyline.
- The video's combination of choreography, slow motion, sudden violence, and surreal imagery helped establish it as one of the more influential experimental music films of the early 2010s.
- "Until the Quiet Comes" won Video of the Year at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards.
- The film later entered the contemporary-art world, appearing in the 2014 exhibition "Ruffneck Constructivists" at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.