Filmed on location in Salvador, Brazil (the last city in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw slavery) and Harlem, New York (an international stronghold of the African diaspora), Many Thousands Gone draws parallels between a summer afternoon on the streets of the two cities.

Ephraim Asili captures joyful expressions of leisure time alongside work, performance, and protest in New York and Salvador. Musician Joe McPhee’s wild, free-jazz score was created in a real-time encounter with a silent version of the film, contributing to the film’s loose, syncopated rhythms.