S16 Festival 2025: Kagho Idehbor Crowther’s “My Jebba Story” Salvages Memory and Humanity 

Some of the most compelling stories often emerge directly from real-life experiences. Because they are rooted in actual individual encounters, they tend to be profound, heartfelt and relatable. Such stories can take the form of documentaries, biopics or hybrid film forms that juggle reality with imaginative interpretation. An example is Raoul Peck’s Ernest Cole: Lost and Found, a documentary that traces the life and influence of South African photojournalist Ernest Cole during the British-led apartheid era. A similar leaning saturates Ugandan academic and cartoonist Jimmy Spire Ssentongo’s The Tongue Turns To The Aching Tooth which, despite its political undertone, spotlights the efforts of a group of Ugandan satirists in capturing the tensions of Idi Amin’s rule. Even the metafictional universe of Damien Hauser’s Memory of Princess Mumbi hints at the intricacies of humanity, navigating the tensions between raw human behaviour and the seemingly inorganic nature of AI-driven technology in a contemporary or futuristic society. Through Kagho Idehbor’s lenses and narrative style in My Jebba Story, however, the documentary form becomes even more pronounced, domesticated, refreshing, rewired into a prototypical intimate, everyday account that reveals the lived experience of the common person in Lagos, Nigeria.

Idehbor’s documentary is short, memoir-esque, crisp and nouveau, plunging into the filmmaker’s early years as a street photographer in Ebutte Meta, following his relocation to Lagos in search of opportunities after film school. At the time, he was squatting with a friend in Jebba street where he acquainted himself with the people for about three years. His documentary leans into those survivalist years during which the filmmaker met his wife, Ibinabo, with whom he has two children, fraternized with a good-natured and gregarious area boy Yoboro, and acquired the grit and local wisdom needed to thrive as a creative around the slums of Lagos. Idehbor, as narrator, acknowledges the influence of Yoboro in building confidence and gaining acceptance amongst the people in the locality.

Filmed entirely in black-and-white monochrome, My Jebba Story feels like an ode to personal history, a toast to the filmmaker’s formative backdrop, with the camera largely featuring a lush and suave perspective of the landscape and skimming through the lives of its participants. The documentary is divided into chapters, each focusing on a specific subject of interest that is linked to the whole, an arrangement that simulates the structure of a novella. Idehbor as the narrator tells the story with commensurate pace and accompanying elucidatory images. Most of the images date back to fifteen years ago during the filmmaker’s sojourn in the neighborhood, which draws attention to the power of photography as a tool for retrospection and preservation of memories.

Kagho Idehbor is previously known for his work as a cinematographer in Nollywood productions such as Up North (2018), Kofa (2022), King of Boys: The Return of the King (2021), Last Year Single (2024) and The Weekend (2024) which won him the Best Cinematography award at the 2024 African Movie Academy Award (AMAA). His film The Broken Mask also won him the Best Short Film at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) in 2024. Now an already established and trusted filmmaker in the industry, My Jebba Story offers a glimpse into his backstory and testifies to his current artistic evolution, showcasing the amount of authority and freedom he wields not just over the camera but also over his own narrative.

What is perhaps most alluring about Idehbor’s photojournalistic account is its underlying message of hope, expressed through his effort to humanize the people and their surroundings while softening the starkness of their impoverished, chaotic, and often pitiable conditions. There is, too, a poignant reminder of the ephemerality of life: Yoboro has passed on, Idehbor has moved beyond the community to build a fulfilling life, and even the neighbourhood itself has evolved since the images were first captured. In this way, the documentary becomes a subtle evidence of the transformation of individuals and communities, and of the memories that remain even after the subjects have been swallowed by history. It compels us to reflect on the delicate continuum of time that weaves past, present and the future in a cohesive visual narrative.