Chinonye Chukwu

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Director and screenwriter Chinonye Chukwu

Chinonye Chukwu (* mid- 1980s years in Port Harcourt ) is a Nigerian - American film director and screenwriter .

Life

Chinonye Chukwu was born in Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria in the mid-1980s as the youngest of four children. When she was one year old, her parents went to Oklahoma where they graduated. Her father has a PhD in petroleum engineering, her mother has master's degrees in chemical engineering and one in petroleum engineering. After her father got a job at the University of Alaska Fairbanks when Chukwu was six, the family moved to Alaska, where she grew up and stayed until she was 18.

In her senior year at DePauw University in Greencastle , Indiana, Chukwu made a documentary entitled Four Women: Being Black and Female on DePauw's Campus . She qualified for the Princess Grace Foundation Grant, received a $ 25,000 scholarship, and was later supported by another grant from the Princess Grace Foundation.

After her film alaskaLand and her short films Bottom and A Long Walk , she presented her film Clemency at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2019 . There Chukwu was the first African American woman to be awarded the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic Competition. In the film, Alfre Woodard can be seen in the role of a prison guard in the maximum security area of ​​a prison in the USA who has to witness dozens of executions. In preparation for the film, Chukwu had spoken to prison staff and retired guards, including prison officials, as well as lawyers and imprisoned men and women, which influenced how she wanted the characters to appear in her film. In Bernadine Williams' office, for example, a clock was repeatedly shown: “Time is a complicated, painful thing when you are locked up. Time means different things when you are serving a life sentence. Time means something else when you're waiting to die. Time means something different when you have your death sentence. Time means something different when you have no idea if you will be pardoned at the last moment. There's a lot of waiting in prison, so I wanted the audience to have different experiences with time. "

In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Chukwu is active in educational work and as an advocate for social justice. She is the founder of Pens to Pictures, a film collaborative that teaches and empowers incarcerated women to make their own short films. She currently works at Wright State University in Dayton , Ohio.

Filmography (selection)

  • 2009: Igbo Kwenu! (Short film)
  • 2010: The Dance Lesson (short film)
  • 2012: alaskaLand
  • 2012: Bottom (short film)
  • 2013: A Long Walk (short film)
  • 2019: Clemency

Awards (selection)

Black Reel Award

  • 2020: Nomination for Best Young Director ( Clemency )
  • 2020: Nomination for Best Screenplay (Clemency)
  • 2020: Nomination for Best Screenplay Debut (Clemency)

Chicago International Film Festival

  • 2019: Nomination for best feature film in the international competition (Clemency)

Independent Spirit Awards

  • 2020 : Nomination for Best Screenplay (Clemency)

Sundance Film Festival

Variety 's 2019 Class

  • Admission to the 10 Screenwriters to Watch (Clemency)

Web links

Commons : Chinonye Chukwu  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chinonye Chukwu. In: blackwomendirectors.co. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b Alexis Okeowo: With Clemency, Chinonye Chukwu Has Made the Most Devastating Movie of the Year. In: Vogue, December 12, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d Chinonye Chukwu: Filmmaker. In: filmdayton.com. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  4. ↑ Filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu '07 to Debut Clemency at Sundance Festival. In: depauw.edu, December 1, 2018.
  5. ↑ Kate Erbland: Sundance: 'Clemency' Filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu Is First Black Woman to Win Biggest Prize. In: indiewire.com, February 3, 2019.
  6. ↑ a b Chinonye Chukwu Reflects On Her Masterfully Haunting Drama 'Clemency'. In: shadowandact.com, February 3, 2019.
  7. ↑ Chinonye Chukwu. In: pgfusa.org. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
  8. ^ Wilson Morales: 20th Annual Black Reel Awards - Nominees Announced. In: blackfilm.com, December 11, 2019.
  9. ^ Announcing Competitions for the 55th Chicago International Film Festival. In: chicagofilmfestival.com. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  10. ↑ Joey Nolfi: Uncut Gems, Lighthouse lead 2020 Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. In: Entertainment Weekly, November 21, 2019.
  11. ↑ https://variety.com/2019/film/news/variety-10-screenwriters-to-watch-2019-1203318695/
personal data
SURNAME Chukwu, Chinonye
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Nigerian-American film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH between 1980 and 1989
PLACE OF BIRTH Port Harcourt , Nigeria