Kenneth Okonkwo, Andy Okeke, Living in Bondage, and the Sequel

Accelerate TV: The Whole Truth

Celebrating Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

CxPStudio

Of Nollywood, Actors, and Paucity of Acting

(By Immanuel James Ibe-Anyanwu) - Every man has his own vanity. … If I were to choose between the story and the prose of a good book, I’d choose the latter—the juice. With movies, I’d choose the acting over the story. Good acting is when you cannot tell the actor apart from the character; when acting is so real as if a secret camera were hidden to catch regular people leading their normal lives—like when you watch “24” and wonder if those guys were actors, or real CTU agents doing their thing and getting filmed.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind—a memoir, now a film. Chiwetel Ejiofor is Trywell Kamkwamba, the Malawian father whose teenage son, William Kamkwamba, exploited the wind and generated electricity, solving drought and famine. A father who, though initially, even fiercely reluctant, finally gave his only bicycle to be cannibalized for a schoolboy’s dream.

             Ejiofor is a poor farmer and there’s no single doubt about it: his energy, looks, emotions. So dissolved into his character is he that, at first, I fail to recognize him. His home, the village, the people—nothing seems like it’s a movie. His wife, Agnes—played by the popular Senegalese actress, Aïssa Maïga—looks, in every detail, the image you know about that kind of woman in your village.

Of Lionheart, Oscars Disqualification, and National Identity Crisis

(By Daniel Chukwuemeka) – The disqualification of Genevieve Nnaji's Lion Heart from Oscar's Best International Film Award category is a very controversial topic. It'll certainly attract the usual discourse about colonialism and debate around nationalism and identity. In all, however, I think that Americans are indirectly telling us, "go home, Nigerians, and resolve your identity crisis. Go home and think, and act."

English is our official language, but if you watched Lion Heart, did you see the part where Pete Edochie is fuming before his prospective Hausa in-law? The Hausa man mutters some words in Hausa without knowing that Pete Edochie understands the language. Pete joins him in Hausa and speaks it away at the amazement and excitement of the Hausa man. That alone seals both their business and family connections.

             I said it in a post yesterday. We had work to do, but failed to do it. Noah Webster jnr. woke up one morning and said that God came to him in a dream and ordered him to write a dictionary of American English.

Of Harriet, Black Women, and Sexism

(By Kellie Carter-Jackson) – So I feel compelled to say a few things about these “Harriet” naysayers...many of whom have not seen the film. First, there was the controversy about Cynthia Erivo. She's black y'all! They didn't ask Scarlet Johansen to play her! Second, her comments about black Americans...c’mon. Don't act y'all don't hear the same ish from black Americans… ever have a meaningful conversation with a black conservative? Same thing. Third, this whole thing about a black slave catcher being the villain... Yes, historically, there were black slave catchers. They were used to win fugitives trust and then betray them for coin. There will ALWAYS be hired hands and mercenaries. Period. Fourth, clearly the greatest villain is slavery. Harriet was combating SLAVERY!!! Perhaps, the film assumes you know this. 

          If you're first impulse in a film about Harriet is to complain about how black men are portrayed, that's a problem. It’s like black women can’t shine without making sure that first no harm was caused to a black man. Folks, complained the black bounty hunter was too violent…really?? MORE VIOLENT than slavery????