Chude Jideonwo’s debut film ‘Awaiting Trial’, has been nominated for Best Documentary at the 2023 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.
Awaiting Trial is a documentary film that explores both the #EndSARS protests and the ‘deeper illness’ they point to – the phenomenon in Nigeria’s communal justice system called ‘awaiting trial’ where people are arrested and detained indefinitely without charge.
The film’s director took to his Instagram to celebrate the nomination and the people who made it possible. He said, “This one is for Obianuju Iloanya whose courage and voice made me badly want to do this. And her mother, Hope whose strength inspired mine. And her stoic father. And her brave brother. And everyone who found the courage to open up and share the powerful stories they did with me over the one year of making this film. ‘If no one encourages you,’ Hope Iloanya said in one of the film’s most powerful lines, ‘encourage yourself.’ I spent months looking for a director for Awaiting Trial. I sat with some of the brightest talents. But it just wasn’t working out. Until the universe whispered to me ‘Do it yourself, Chude’. Do it, alarmed, afraid, and vulnerable. Do it, despite the voices that will question your bonafides as a director. Do it, because the only way to become brilliant is to begin. Do it, because this matters to you. So, I overcame the fright. I steeled myself for the judgement. I silenced the voices in my head.”
Awaiting Trial since its limited online screening has won several awards and recognition one of which is being Official Selection and Nominee of the African International Film Festival (AFRIFF).
Others on the AMVCA lists are 100 of Us, Way to the Top, Green: The Amazons, Truck Blind Spot, Nigeria-the Debut, and Baby Blues.
