The Archive: Queer Nigerians
Synopsis
Official Selection Encounters International Film Festival 2023 - World premiere
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2023 - Winner Short Film Competition
Details
- Year
- 2023
- Type of project
- Shorts
- Running time
- 25 min
- Format
- 16mm
- Director
-
Simisolaoluwa Akande
- Producer
- Ermias Asfaw, Joseph Bushell, Maxine Gordon
- Executive Producer
- Hannah Bush Bailey
- Editor
- Simisolaoluwa Akande, Joseph Bushell
- Director of Photography
- Bea Macdonald
- Production Designer
- Andrea Greenwood, Glow-ann Crawford
- Composer
- Tope Olufemi, Tori Daniels
- Principal cast
- Chima, Alex, Timinepre, Morayo, Tomkola
- Folklore Writer
- Maureen Onwunali
Genre
Production Status
Production Company
Supported by BFI NETWORK Doc Society
ITAN FILMS
Suite 21695 Mortimer Street
London
W1W 7GB
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Baby
Director: Simisolaoluwa Akande
Year: 2025
Baby dons a fluorescent pink wig and an unflinching smile on her socials, selling an airbrushed life in Europe to entice young Nigerian girls. Behind the filtered posts lies a more harrowing truth: Baby is trapped in a network of sex trafficking, surviving by enforcing the very system that once consumed her. Past rituals inflicted on the girls not only keep their bodies imprisoned, but also their minds, believing their silence and subservience dilutes their cursed lives. But, when someone from Baby's past becomes the newest recruit, Baby's carefully constructed world crumbles. Baby is confronted with guilt, complicity, and the crushing weight of unfulfilled dreams. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2025
Matter of Britain
Director: Peter Treherne
Year: 2026
MATTER OF BRITAIN was an English country village’s performance of the Holy Grail myth. In that myth, King Arthur’s knights quest for the Holy Grail in order to heal their wasted land. The performance took place over 12 months from 2023 to 2024 in multiple locations across the parish of Mayfield, East Sussex. Over 300 members of the community took part as questing knights, angelic choirs, guiding anchorites and tempting devils. The performance was documented and subsequently made into an ethnographic fantasy that has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, CPH:DOX, Cinéma du Réel and Open City Documentary Film Festival. The work was supported by an Arts Council England Project Grant, the Lund Trust, High Weald AONB, East Sussex Arts Partnership, the University of Reading and the Museum of English Rural Life.
Mother's Influence
Director: Meg Wriggles
Year: 2025
Growing up with an unconventional single mother – an influencer navigating aging and body dysmorphia, Meg admires her but questions how it shaped her own self-image. Through laughter and vulnerability, they unpack identity, influence, and the complexities of their evolving relationship. Official Selection Edinburgh International Film Festival 2026 – World Premiere