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
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • New York African Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    May 20, 2022
    North American Premiere
  • San Franciso Black Film Festival
    San Francisco
    United States
    June 17, 2022
  • Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival
    Atlanta
    United States
    September 24, 2022
  • African Film Festival Atlanta
    Atlanta
    United States
Director Biography - Ifeanyi Awachie

Ifeanyi Awachie is a Nigeria-born, Atlanta-raised writer, scholar, and filmmaker. She holds a PhD in Cinema Studies from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is the writer and director of This Thing Is Not for You, produced by WATZS Productions, LLC, a short film that has screened at the New York African Film Festival, the San Francisco Black Film Festival, the Morehouse College Human Rights Festival, and beyond.

Add Director Biography
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.