This Sunday, April 28 is National Superhero Day, a day to celebrate the people — real and fictional — who protect and serve their community, fight evil in the world, and help inspire and uplift those around them. In honor of the day, AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange invites audiences to join the celebration by streaming the Kenyan film Supa Modo and meet a young girl whose greatest wish is to join the ranks of heroes like Black Panther, Batman, Wonder Woman and more, who have captured the imaginations of millions around the world.
Directed by Likarion Wainaina, Supa Modo presents audiences with a different kind of superhero. The film tells the story of Jo, a 9-year-old girl living with a terminal illness who keeps her spirits lifted through the superhero films screened at her children’s hospital. When her mother decides to bring her home after doctors share a grave diagnosis, Jo devotes even more time to her superhero fantasies, dreaming of becoming one herself. Soon, with a little assistance from her older sister and members of their village, Jo develops abilities that allow her to freeze people in motion, overpower evil-doers and, just maybe, even fly. One question remains: With her newfound powers, will Jo be able to fight and defeat her illness?
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A family-friendly film offering an honest look at childhood illness, the importance of human connections and the magical power of imagination, Supa Modo proves that there is a superhero in each of us.
The winner of the Golden Dhow at the Zanzibar International Film Festival (2018), Best Narrative Feature at the Black Film Festival Montreal (2018) and a nominee for Best Film-Generation Kplus at the Berlin International Film Festival (2018), Supa Modo stars Stycie Waweru, an actor known for her voice work in the Disney+ animated series Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, as Jo, and actors Marrianne Nungo and Nyawara Ndambia.
The film is available to stream as part of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange on the WORLD YouTube Channel, worldchannel.org, PBS.org and the PBS app. Viewers can also check their local listings for airings on their local public television stations.
Other films this season of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange include Commuted by Nailah Jefferson, following a New Orleans woman given second chance at life after her prison sentence is commuted by President Obama; Freedom Hill by Resita Cox, a profile of the residents of Princeville, North Carolina, as they work to save their community from the effects of environmental injustice and the now frequent “100-year” floods that threaten to wash it away; and Kati Kati by Mbithi Masya, a supernatural trip to a place in-between life and death, where a woman works to unravel the mystery of her existence and that of her fellow travelers.
AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange is co-presented and co-produced by Black Public Media and WORLD (formerly WORLD Channel). For more on the series, visit blackpublicmedia.org and worldchannel.org.
