Joseph Jonathan

Muscle
Berlinale 2026: Karimah Ashaduʼs “Muscle” Turns the Black Male Body Into a Site of Witness

Muscle is the kind of film that earns its place not by being conventionally digestible…

visa denials
How Visa Denials Are Costing African Film Professionals More Than Just a Trip

Visa denials for African film professionals is not a bureaucratic inconvenience sitting at the edge…

Kissing
The Performance of Purity: Nollywood, Kissing and Nigeriaʼs Faux Conservatism

The outrage over kissing is not the expression of ancient tradition. It is the performance…

Alive Till Dawn
“Alive Till Dawn” Review: Star Power, Genre Risk and Nollywood’s Innovation Myth

Alive Till Dawn is competent enough to be watchable, ambitious enough to signal intent, but…

Valentineʼs Day
Valentineʼs Day Is a Scam, But Romance Still Isnʼt

Valentineʼs Day in Nigeria has become less about love and more about the appearance of…

African film industry
What Trends Will Drive Africa’s Film Industry in 2026?

African filmmakers are no longer waiting for permission or validation from foreign gatekeepers; they’re building…

Jazz Infernal
Sundance 2026: “Jazz Infernal” Is a Sonic Portrait of Diaspora and Legacy

Jazz Infernal is a compact but resonant meditation on grief, migration, and the pressure to…

A Very Dirty Christmas
“A Very Dirty Christmas” Review: Religion and Nollywood’s Soft Censorship

The battle over A Very Dirty Christmas might seem small in the grand scheme of things,…

African films
25 African Films Turning 10 in 2026

Revisiting these 25 African films from 2016, now turning ten in 2026, offers a snapshot…

Colours of Fire
“Colours of Fire” and the Anxiety of Technical Progress

Colours of Fire is crowded with ideas: tribalism, fear-mongering, inherited violence, love as disruption, myth…