UPDATE (March 15, 2026, 10:35 p.m. ET): “Sinners” ended the night with four wins, including best actor honors for Michael B. Jordan and a historic win in cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw. But it lost in several of the other major categories to “One Battle After Another,” which took home best director and best picture. “Sinners” is a hoodoo movie, deeply and unapologetically so. In making the film set in the 1930s Mississippi Delta, director Ryan Coogler and producer Zinzi Evans were intentional about displaying the real culture of this region I call home, and they leaned on scholars such as Yvonne Chireau to explore conjure as a sophisticated spiritual technology.  For instance, we see the hoodoo in the sacred symmetry of twins Smoke and Stack, brilliantly played by Michael B. Jordan. Smoke and Stack mirror the Marassa, those divine twins in the Haitian Vodou and West African Yoruba Ife tradition who navigate the world as a singular, divided soul. They move with a grace older than the roads they travel, their every choice colored by myths finally given flesh, blood and consequence. Here in the Black South, the speculative is more than a genre. To make a film that speaks of conjure or haints is to engage in a deep cultural reclamation. This grounding brings a visceral magic to the screen. “Sinners,” for good reason, has been nominated for a record-breaking 16 Oscars, including for best picture. Here in the Black South, the speculative is more than a genre. It is…

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UPDATE (March 15, 2026, 10:35 p.m. ET): “Sinners” ended the night with four wins, including best actor honors for Michael B. Jordan and a historic win in cinematography for Autumn Durald Arkapaw. But it lost in several of the other major categories to “One Battle After Another,” which took home best director and best picture. “Sinners” is a hoodoo movie, deeply and unapologetically so. In making the film set in the 1930s Mississippi Delta, director Ryan Coogler and producer Zinzi Evans were intentional about displaying the real culture of this region I call home, and they leaned on scholars such as Yvonne Chireau to explore conjure as a sophisticated spiritual technology.  For instance, we see the hoodoo in the sacred symmetry of twins Smoke and Stack, brilliantly played by Michael B. Jordan. Smoke and Stack mirror the Marassa, those divine twins in the Haitian Vodou and West African Yoruba Ife tradition who navigate the world as a singular, divided soul. They move with a grace older than the roads they travel, their every choice colored by myths finally given flesh, blood and consequence. Here in the Black South, the speculative is more than a genre. To make a film that speaks of conjure or haints is to engage in a deep cultural reclamation. This grounding brings a visceral magic to the screen. “Sinners,” for good reason, has been nominated for a record-breaking 16 Oscars, including for best picture. Here in the Black South, the speculative is more than a genre. It is…

Continue reading →