Its very first seconds stun you as you begin to watch. This duet by Lagos-based brothers Victory and Marvel Ebinum dubbed ‘Kaduna’ is a 5-minute long dance film that blends elements of Hausa culture, dance, and music. ‘Kaduna’ portrays themes including migration, un-bordered unity, and kinship. It emphasizes disconnected relationships caused by migration, especially during this period where the pandemic has kept many disconnected from their relatives in the diaspora.

The film opens in a bare wasteland in Northern Nigeria’s Kaduna. Draped in drab-looking Kaftans, the brothers present a soulful choreography that keeps your thoughts pensive and your eyes fixed throughout the poetic screenplay. As your eyes follow the dramatic pacing of their feet, neck, and hand movements, it is the rhythm that ices the cake by masterfully fermenting the solemn mood of the film.

“A movement born out of migration and distance—out of likeness and difference. In this mutually birthed language, we seek to obliterate the illusion that we are separate from each other and the environment that holds us together. We are no bigger or smaller. We are a brotherhood. A kinship,” the brothers express.

Uniquely, the film appears to have no presence of sound, except for snippets of Choral Hausa renditions, waterfall sounds, and free-form Hausa folk chants, all guided by the film’s dramatic storytelling rhythm.  

Created by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Jacob Jonas alongside Kaduna-based Ridwan Adeniyi of the Critics Company, the film showcases the Ebinum brothers in a radiant light far removed from the consciousness of Nigeria’s contemporary dance/art-film audience. It also features original choreography by New York City-based Vinson Fraley and an original score by Los Angeles-based composer Anibal Sandoval. The teamwork culminates in a breathtaking performance.

Victory, 21, and Marvel, 18, Ebinum are a self-taught fraternal dance duo based in Lagos. After nearly five years of self-learning from YouTube videos, they have honed their skills as choreographers, directors, and dance teachers. Although they began training professionally as dancers, in 2017, they had been dancing for the previous 12 years. The brothers claim to be inspired by their own lives and perspectives.  

“We are best known for our story-telling through movements and we love to share our art and story with the world in order to inspire people and change minds. Training as choreographers in Nigeria was a hard one for us because there were no good spaces to train and no one to teach us. We had to learn to dance on our own and study all about it, even without a mirror or big spaces and good sound,’’ the brothers noted.

‘Kaduna’ is the opening selection, and only Nigerian selection, in the global free film series, Films.Dance, which was produced by US-based Jacob Jonas The Company. The web series, which began airing on January 25 on www.films.dance is expected to run for 15 weeks, up until May 2021. It is an ambitious project by prominent LA cultural stakeholders – the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Chicago-based Joan W. and Irving Theater – which showcases 15 short art films from over 150 artists across 25 different countries.

“Our goals are to create a global arts community, to elevate the power of dance through non-traditional collaborations and to engage digital audiences in innovative ways,” said Jacob Jonas, executive producer of Films.Dance. “The diversity of the artists and their explorations has fostered new ways of thinking and has allowed the formation of deep relationships across physical borders. I look forward to launching this series worldwide.”

“Films.Dance is an extraordinary and ambitious project that comes at a unique time for our culture as we seek connection with others yet continue to remain apart,” said Thor Steingraber, executive director of The Soraya. 

President and CEO of the Harris Theater Lori Dimun commented, “Films.Dance has also allowed us to challenge our assumptions about how art is created and shared. We are excited by the opportunity to think beyond our physical space, to be transported by the diverse collective of artists to the places they live and work, and to share these extraordinary films as a community that transcends genre, geography, and language.”

Other notable masterpieces that made the film series include ‘Another Serious Dance Film’ directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (directors of the new Netflix film Project Power, featuring Jamie Foxx), ‘正念 Now’ directed by Shanghai-based Robin Mahieux and featuring original music composed by Rosie Lowe, and ‘Edging Normal’ directed by Andre Bato with music co-composed by Steve Hackman and Dave Koz, nine-time Grammy Award-nominated saxophonist, among others. ‘Kaduna’ featuring the Ebinum brothers remains the only Nigerian selection.