Project Detail

The Archive: Queer Nigerians

Synopsis

Following five queer Nigerians living in the UK as they document their lives through audio diaries. From childhood to the present, participants share stories that explore how universal ideas of family, love, and finding oneself are obfuscated within the intersection of Blackness, African-ness, and Queerness.
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

Production Status

Production Company

Supported by BFI NETWORK Doc Society

ITAN FILMS

Suite 216
95 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.

Seen from behind a woman rubs her head 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

Image of a vicar holding up the eucharist. 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.

Louise is in  the bath, we can see Meg filming her in the reflection in the mirror. They are talking 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