Private Project

This Thing Is Not for You

The first Black woman president of the United States announces that African Americans will finally receive reparations. A Nigerian-American family grapples with what this means for them, unearthing latent tensions along the way.

  • Ifeanyi Awachie
    Director
  • Ifeanyi Awachie
    Writer
  • Kachelle Zachery
    Producer
    Reset (2020)
  • Kalisha Zachery
    Producer
    Reset (2020), F o R (post-production)
  • Collins Uzowulu
    Key Cast
    "Ifeanyi Dozie"
    Hierarchy (2020), Dating Blues (2020), It's a Wonderful Plight (2019), etc.
  • Adwoa Duncan-Williams
    Key Cast
    "Isioma Dozie"
    Ms/Manage (2021), BET Her Presents: The Couch (2021)
  • Austeen Eboka
    Key Cast
    "Zikorachukwu "Zik" Dozie"
    The Exorcism of Jimmy Lee (2021), etc.
  • Eno Georgette Inwek
    Key Cast
    "Lota Dozie"
    Consequences (2021), Foreign Love (2018), Yemi's Dilemma (2018), Brenna Rhea: Change (2014)
  • Veneicia Smith
    Key Cast
    "President Ilhan Farah"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    February 1, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ifeanyi Awachie

Ifeanyi Awachie is a Nigeria-born, Atlanta-raised writer, scholar, curator, and filmmaker. With a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Yale University, she is the writer and director of "This Thing Is Not for You" (2022), produced by WATZS Productions, LLC. Ifeanyi is currently a Ph.D. Student in Cinema Studies and a Corrigan Fellow at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

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Director Statement

As a Nigeria-born, Atlanta-raised, woman screenwriter, I am uniquely equipped to tell stories of first-generation African experience that speak to audiences across the diaspora. In film, African experiences have mainly been presented through comedy or through stories of trauma. In my work, I aim to draw from my lived experience to write and direct dignified, dramatic narratives that ultimately focus on the joy, solidarity, and upliftment of Nigerians and Africans in diaspora. I find immense beauty in Nigerian, and specifically, Igbo, culture - in our dignity, our wit, our music, our dress, our food - and I wish to share this beauty with audiences.

"This Thing Is Not for You" is a short dramatic narrative. The film is inspired by the Igbo household in which I grew up and by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 Atlantic article, “The Case for Reparations.” The film speaks to the tensions between Nigerians and African Americans. At the same time, the film is a universal story about family, touching on issues like estrangement and generational differences but grounding in the joy of sibling and parent relationships. I hope that my film can play a part in framing Nigerian culture, share a specific diasporic Nigerian experience, and inspire needed conversations.