“Nkechi has been living in London as an illegal immigrant with her girlfriend Martha, who is an asylum seeker. One day, immigration turn up unexpectedly to their house, forcing Nkechi to make a decision that would change the course of both their lives. It’s a story about love in places we don’t usually get to see love.” Director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor on FOR LOVE which screens at SxSW 2022.
Welcome to SxSW and congratulations! Is this your first SxSW experience?
YES! I’m really excited about showing FOR LOVE here, and also just to be able to see how people react to the film and this story that we have to share. I’m also looking forward to everything SXSW has to offer.
How did you first hear about SxSW and wishing to send your project into the festival?
I actually come from a producing background so I’ve known about SXSW, it’s one of those festivals that you hear so many good things about, so we knew we had to send it here.
Tell me about the idea behind your project and getting it made!
I wanted to explore love in places that we didn’t see love. When it came to stories about immigration we are only shown the hardship, which is true, but we never see the joy or the hope and that was something I was keen to explore. I’ve been through the immigration system and I remember hanging onto the hope, that is something I wanted to show in this film. Myself and my producer Emily Morgan, went to BBC Film who saw what the story meant and agreed to come onboard to finance the film.
Who are some of your creative inspirations? Any particular filmmaking talent or movie that inspired you for this project?
My two creative inspirations are Wong Kar-Wai and Park Chan-wook, for me it’s about the colours and texture. I love the way both directors use colours.
How did you put this together from a technical viewpoint? What sort of cameras/lenses did you use and/or did you have any creative challenges in making it?
I think our most creative challenge was that the flat we filmed in was very small, which is appropriate for the story but hard in reality to fit crew in, especially during Covid. But my director of photography Nanu Segal, was amazing, and we thought about how we could use hallways to help. So some of our shots are from other ends of the hallways to help with space but also allowed us to have a creative flow with the acting as well. Our most technical shot is the final scene as I wanted it to feel seamless, so we have to do it all in one shot with motion control. For the final scene when the camera comes down again, I think we only had three takes to do that because we were losing light but we got it in the end.
If you had one piece of advice to offer someone to get their start as a creator or filmmaker in the industry, what would you suggest?
I think just start, it doesn’t matter whether it’s on an iPhone, if you have a story to tell then tell it. There are so many ways we consume stories these days that I don’t think there’s one rule to any of it, so just start.
This film and many others like it will be showing at South By Southwest taking place March 11-20. For more information point your browser to www.sxsw.com!