Chukwu was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. When she was just over a year old, her family moved to Oklahoma, and moved again to Fairbanks, Alaska when she was six.[2] They visited Nigeria often.[2]
Growing up in Alaska, Chukwu was often the only African-American in her classes, and she struggled to fit in. Throughout her childhood she dealt with Seasonal affective disorder, which was exacerbated by limited wintertime daylight in Alaska. To cope, she read Maya Angelou and joined the weight-lifting club. Chukwu always wanted to make movies. In her teen years, she carried around a journal that she would write down ideas for films and music videos. She often wrote stories about Nigerian-American girls reconnecting with loves or lost siblings.[2]
During the 2013-2014 academic year Chukwu received the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University.[5]
Career
Chukwu directed The Dance Lesson in 2010, about a young black girl who struggles to become a ballerina in an increasingly gentrified community.[6] Her first feature film, Alaska-Land (2012), told the story of an estranged Nigerian-American brother and sister who eventually reunite in their hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska.[7][2][8] The film was rejected from every festival and lab program she applied to.[7][9] In 2013 she directed A Long Walk (2013), a short film about a child who is publicly ridiculed by his father.[10]
Clemency (2019) was written and directed by Chukwu. The death row drama stars Alfre Woodard as a prison warden coming to terms with the demands of her profession and Aldis Hodge as one of her inmates bound for execution.[11] Her inspiration for the film came from the case of Troy Davis, a prisoner executed in 2011. She moved to Los Angeles in 2017 to shoot the film.[2] She received the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at 2019 Sundance, the first black woman to do so.[12][13]
Chukwu wrote and directed the 2022 film Till, a biographical film about Mamie Till-Mobley's pursuit of justice after the 1955 lynching of her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till.[15]
Filmography
Short films
Chinonye Chukwu's short film credits
Year
Title
Writer
Director
Producer
Notes
2009
Igbo Kwenu!
Yes
Yes
Yes
2010
The Dance Lesson
Yes
Yes
Yes
Also editor
2011
5 Afternoons
No
No
No
Production manager
2012
Bottom
Yes
Yes
Yes
Also editor
2013
Dust
No
No
Yes
Mud Lotus
No
No
Yes
Also first assistant director
A Long Walk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Feature films
Chinonye Chukwu's feature film credits
Year
Title
Writer
Director
Producer
Notes
2008
Chronic Town
No
No
No
Production assistant
2012
alaskaLand
Yes
Yes
Yes
2013
A Historical Approach to the Positive Music: Jazz in Philadelphia!
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