USA / 2010 / 17mins / Drama / English

After meeting her African refugee mother for the first time in six years, 8-year-old Hawa is forced to co-exist with a woman teetering on the brink of insanity.

Nikyatu Jusu

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Sierra Leonean-American Filmmaker Nikyatu's films have screened at top tier festivals nationally and internationally. With a BA from Duke University and an MFA from NYU's Tisch Graduate Film school, she's earned various awards including NYU’s Spike Lee Fellowship Award, the Princess Grace Narrative film grant and Director’s Guild of America Honorable Mentions. Three of her short films were acquired by and aired on HBO. Her 2019 film Suicide By Sunlight: a project funded by Through Her Lens and sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and Chanel, made its debut at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and is featured online at shortofttheweek. Nikyatu made her TV Directing debut with an episode of the original scripted horror anthology: Two Sentence Horror Stories, which premiered on CW Sept 2019. Her feature script, Nanny, was selected for the 2019 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Labs & Summit, the 2020 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab and the 2019 IFP Project Forum. Nanny, was also one of 35 projects selected for the 2020 Creative Capital Awards. The film debuted at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize (US Dramatic). Nikyatu is a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Film & Video department at George Mason University where she teaches Screenwriting and Directing and is currently in development on her first feature film. Learn More