Sinners Gives Hoodoo Its Due

About this episode

This episode explores the film 'Sinners' and its cultural significance, featuring insights from historians and a discussion on hoodoo.

Sinners got a historic 16 Academy Award nominations, which was remarkable for a film with vampires. But the film is also a rich exploration of race, religion, culture and music in 1930s Mississippi. Professor Yvonne Chireau played a key role behind the scenes. She’s a historian of the spiritual tradition of hoodoo. Since hoodoo and voodoo have long been reduced to horror tropes, she was brought on as a consultant. She also worked with actress Wunmi Mosaku, who earned an Academy Award nomination for playing the character Annie, a conjure practitioner in the story. I also talk with Professor Kinitra Brooks, who is writing a book on conjure women. She explains why Annie’s wisdom, bravery and romance felt validating for her – partly because Kinitra’s great-grandmother was a conjure woman. This episode is sponsored by Mizzen & Main. Get 20% off your first purchase at mizzenandmain.com with the promo code IMAGINARY20. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Eric Molinsky

Guests: Yvonne Chireau, Kinitra Brooks

Topics covered

• hoodoo
• vampires
• race
• religion
• 1930s Mississippi
• film
• culture

Keywords

• Sinners
• hoodoo
• vampires
• Academy Awards
• 1930s
• race
• religion
• Kinitra Brooks
• Yvonne Chireau

Sponsors

Mizzen & Main

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Sinners

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