Off-Set: Clemency

Clemency

o Winner of Sundance U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize 2019

INTERVIEW WITH Writer and Director Chinonye Chukwu

Where did the idea for Clemency come from?

In September 2011, a Black man named Troy Davis was executed in a Georgia State Prison. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world, including several retired wardens and Directors of Correction, protested his execution: they banded together and wrote a letter to the Governor urging clemency for Troy. We were all frustrated and angry and sad when he was executed, but that got my thinking: if we’re all feeling this way, what must it be like for the people who had to kill him? What does it mean for your livelihood to be tied to the taking of >>

human life? And, so in 2013, I made the decision that this was going to be the next film I was going to make.

How did your research process start?

I moved from New York to Ohio to volunteer on a clemency case for Tyra Patterson, a woman serving a life sentence for a crime she didn’t commit. I spent two years working very closely with her legal team, being a media representative for her case and talking with Tyra and other incarcerated women. This then led to my work advocating for people who are incarcerated. For example, I created a film programme teaching incarcerated women how to develop a short film from script to screen. It wasn’t research for Clemency, but it deepened my understanding of the humanities that exist between prison walls. I volunteered for about thirteen other clemency cases before moving from Ohio. All of that informed the world-building of Clemency.

How do you balance your work as an activist with being a filmmaker and artist?

One of the things that can help dismantle the prison-industrial complex is if we truly see and treat people as human beings; the problem is that we discard and dehumanise disproportionately. That was my artistic approach: to be as compassionate and humane as possible without telling people how to think. Give them space to feel and then they can make their own judgement from there.

What challenges did you face making Clemency?

One big challenge was the emotional intensity required. I had to go to some pretty dark and deep places in order to write the script and to revise it and revise it again – even through preproduction. That took an emotional toll on me. I’m pretty good at emotionally compartmentalising, but there was one day on set where I just broke down in tears at the monitor. It took several months after shooting to emotionally recalibrate. We shot this film in 17 days, so that was

also a challenge. We didn’t have a hundred million dollars for this movie, so filming it in 17 days required a lot of creativity in the decisions we made.

Entering the film industry as a Black woman is a challenge in itself, but you seem to have gathered a great team around you. Do you intend to work with them again?

There are many talented Black female directors who haven’t been given the access or the platform yet. I have my next project lined up for later this year, working

Aldis Hodge

again with Eric Branco as Director of Photography and Bronwyn Cornelius as Executive Producer. It’s called A Taste Of Power and is based on the memoir of Elaine Brown, who is the first and only female leader of the Black Panther Party.

Credit: Excerpts taken from the New Directors/New Films Q&A at Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Watch Clemency now virtually at www.bit.ly/ClemencySF until 23 August and 50% of the proceeds

will go to support S.O.U.L. Fest. n

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Image: Film & TV Award Winner 2020, Akuol de Mabior

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