Sinners and the Black Experience for Black History Month
This summer, I watched the epic film Sinners at South Bank IMAX — my very first IMAX experience — and what a way to begin. Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film is nothing short of a masterpiece. It’s powerful, layered, and deeply provocative, weaving together the stories of African, African American, Irish, Chinese, and Native American communities. What struck me most is how it reveals the interconnectedness of our struggles and the cultural roots that hold us.
At its heart, Sinners is a film about survival — about the sins and sacrifices people made simply to live. It doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of migration, displacement, and the illusions of “better opportunities” elsewhere. One of the most poignant threads is the story of the twins who leave for Chicago, only to find the same struggles in a different landscape. That cycle of fleeing and returning speaks to a deeper truth: our history is not just about movement, but about what we carry, what we leave behind, and who we become in the process.
The film is steeped in the soundscape of the Blues. Blues was not just music; it was survival, spiritual medicine, and a cry from the depths of despair during the Depression era. Coogler brilliantly shows how the Blues carried within it both grief and resistance, how it evolved into other genres, and how it continues to echo in today’s music and struggles. Watching Sinners reminded me that our contributions to culture — especially music — are inseparable from our lived experience of oppression, resilience, and creativity.
What makes Sinners so powerful is that it isn’t just a horror film or a drama; it’s history told through art. It narrates the pain, the traditions, the spirituality — from hoodoo and voodoo to the rhythms of Irish dance blending with Black sound — and places it in conversation with the present. It’s about us, but also about how all peoples’ stories intertwine in the pursuit of dignity and survival.
For Black History Month, I reflect on Sinners not simply as entertainment but as a cultural text — one that pushes us to talk, to study, to remember. It’s a reminder that Black history is not just about milestones and achievements, but also about the raw, unfiltered experiences of survival, art, and collective memory. And in a time when forces still try to divide us, this film shows the power of story and sound to bring us together.
