FANTASTIC MAN, MYSTERY MAN Jake Sumner’s documentary Fantastic Man can be called Mystery Man. Only the new title would fail to capture the forward looking brilliance of musician William Onyeabor, the film’s subject. Quite popular decades ago, Onyeabor’s music was peculiar for its liberal use of synthesizers, an entirely unfamiliar sound from music on the continent […]
LOOKING FOR AFRICA The documentary This Is My Africa has a moment of thrill for Nigerian viewers. It also has a moment of condescension. Within and around these moments director Zina Saro-Wiwa has fashioned an arty coterie of celebrities to talk about Africa, present their own versions of Africa by providing answers to: favourite African […]
OF GODS AND AMBITIOUS DIRECTORS Oya tells the story of Adesuwa, a young woman with the ability to transform to Oya, the goddess of change. Adesuwa is on a mission to close the gateway between earth and the world of the Orishas. To succeed she must find the key. He has succeeded on making a […]
WALLIS’S WAY “Medicine will not heal her. I know prayer will.” Frances Bodomo’s short film Boneshaker stars Beast of the Southern Wild star Quvenzhane Wallis as a child believed by her parents to be afflicted by a spirit. The audience meets the family—father, mother, grandmother and 2 girls—en route church. Wallis opens the film screaming, […]