Monangambee (formerly Is That Jazz?, 2016-2019) is a nomadic panafrican microcinema in Lagos, primarily based at the Jazzhole bookstore in Ikoyi, but also screening in a variety of other locations. Our screenings engage Black continental and diasporic filmmakers, as well as Third Cinema, and cinematic movements stemming from the Global South in general.

Our name was decided as an homage to late Sarah Maldoror’s debut film, Monangambee (1969), in conversation with her daughter, Annouchka de Andrade. Set in Angola but shot in Algeria, Monangambee speaks to the fundamental misrecognition(s) between colonized and colonizers in a Fanonian vein, while also centering the possibilities of revolutionary care work. Quite fittingly, the name of the film is taken from a war cry colonized Angolans employed to warn of the approach of Portuguese slave traders.

We co-founded the annual Lagos Queer Film Festival (LQFF) with fellow Lagos-based collective and community hub, hFACTOR, in 2021. We are dedicated to celebrating and uplifting experimental, bold & dazzling queer cinema from the Black world, putting the continent and the diaspora in a shared frame. We accept submissions year-round from filmmakers from around the world, as long as it is queer-themed, though we place a particular emphasis on Black filmmakers.

Monangambee is primarily volunteer-based, we finance our initiatives via grants as much as possible, but welcome support, if you are able to. You can send us donations via Wise, indicating “Monangambee” in the reference.

If you like what we do, you should also check these other initiatives: No Parking Lagos, No Evil Eye Cinema, Culture Art Society (CAS) and SUNU Journal.