Filmmaker Chuckwonoso Dereke is in THE HAVEN!

V catches up with 2019 Annapolis Film Festival Shorts Challenge Pitch Competition Winner Chuckwunonso Dereke to discuss her film, #Bride Price. A magical #Afro-futurism story about a young #Nigerian-American woman who goes to her local African grocery store and finds herself transported into a mystical traditional #Igbo wedding, the film resonates the message of women empowerment and self-discovery. This is one in a series of episodes featuring filmmakers with films premiered at the Annapolis Film Festival.

Episode Transcript

(00:57):
Hello, dream Catchers, and welcometo another exciting day in the Writers Haven.
I am your host v Helena,and today with me at the Annapolis
Film Festival, I have the filmmakerwho won the shorts competition last year,
Chu Kunanso dreek Perfect, who's withme to talk about her film, The

(01:17):
Bride Price. Yes, yes,so we I interviewed you last year when
you were and at that time youdidn't know that you had won the competition.
I didn't know, and then wefound out was it that night,
Yes, yes, that night.But at that time, I still believe
in the story. I feel likeyou have to have confidence to believe that
you're gonna win. And then theuniverse responded back, so yeah, yeah,

(01:40):
yeah, okay, and so tellus what has happened from the time
that you got the great news thatyou won till today when you're well,
Actually, your film premiered yesterday,premiered yesterday, officially premiered on Friday,
and then ten Yemen and then theyscreened it again Saturday at twelve fifteen,

(02:01):
and it was very I guess Iwas so nervous because that was my first
time really seeing it on the bigscreen outside of like the editing room and
when we were doing the sound,but just being around people, listening to
their reactions to stuff, like allthe little details coming to life. I
was glad that people from all walksof life were able to connect with it
because I wanted it to be auniversal story. So as a storyteller sometimes

(02:23):
you get really sensitive about that,like well people understand it, especially because
it's a Nigerian of American based story. So I was just worried if people
would get it, and they did, and so that made me feel really
good. Yeah, tell us alittle bit about the storyline. Oh okay,
So Bride Price is an afrofuturism filmabout a young woman named Uzama.

(02:43):
Muzama means someone that goes on ajourney in Ebo, and so she comes
from the Ebo tribe and her parentscame to America for more opportunities. But
she deals with the universal notion offeeling like she's expiring as a woman.
And her mother taught her the recipesof womanhood, but then the kitchen,
and she always felt a little bitdomesticated and she always wanted more out of
life. But so she goes oneday, she goes on a journey to

(03:06):
the African grocery store and she's propelledinto the future and she has a traditional
evil wedding and she figures out herworth and her interferes and challenges are personified
and projected in the grocery store,and she feels like her life is parallel
to the came good items that areexpiring on the shelf. And interesting enough,
within the Nigerian community, we hadbuyer prices and it's basically saying if

(03:29):
a girl does this, this,and this, then she is of value
and she's worth this. And there'scertain things that she does that may depreciate
her value. But the thing thatmakes that's unfortunate is getting older also depreciates
to your value, and that's somethingthat you don't have control over. So
I wanted to show that she dealswith the concept of mortality and immortality at
the same time, and it's hardfor her to decipher and go through that.

(03:53):
So her literally going down the aislein life and getting married going down
the aisle, I thought it wasbeautiful that the two things are able to
get married read on screen. Soyeah, the film had a lot of
layers, So I was glad,you know, within ten minutes. I
wanted to make sure people could getall of it and it would still,
you know, meet them at aplace where they were comfortable with. So,
yeah, what were some of thechallenges that you faced in making the

(04:15):
film? Well, for one thing, I shot in a real acting grocery
store, so that was really hard. I had a big crew and a
big cast, so it was reallyhard. And I blessed my uncle.
We shot in Maryland and wanted toshow that films could be made in Maryland,
and so he has a grocery storecalled Iraco Foods and belts Ful Maryland
and we shot there. Yeah,and it was really nice. But the

(04:35):
thing was we could only shoot whenthe store was closed. So the people
that are part of my team wereso dedicated. They believed in the story
and they stayed there with me.And it was really humbling to work with
people that really just cared, youknow, and I had a vision and
it became their vision and I justfelt honored to work with people with that
type of insight. So that wasreally hard. Having in the film,

(04:56):
the main character ends up being ringedup. Literally, her body is like
she They rank her up to figureout her bride price. And so that
was hard making sure we got thespecial effects right. But it looks so
great. I'm so grateful and funnyenough, this is my thesis film.
So that's hard too because I've spentlike three years writing treatment sports and anops.
This is just like breaking on thecharacters. I go to Howard for
film school, the only HBCU withthe MFA film program. So it's really

(05:21):
hard because people will see ten minutesand they don't know you spent three years,
you know what I mean, threeyears putting it together. And I
was honored that a guest celebrity professorwe had, Julie Dash was there.
She was she was my professor,and she loved the story and she ended
up becoming she's a sore too.She ended up becoming my mentor and she
became a producer for the film,and so it's been a blessing. And

(05:42):
another guest celebrity professor we had atHoward was an effortt and she has her
own company called Hollywood Africans, andshe came on as a producer too.
And all these women, including mymother love her so much. My parents
they really poured into the story andit was really important for me to have
at least seventy eighty percent women andbehind the lens, because I think it
changes the way you tell stories,especially when you're telling the story of a

(06:04):
woman. And I just wanted itto be very intimate. I wanted people
to see women working in powerful positionsand all of us listening to one another,
you know, And that was Itwas a wonderful experience. So I'm
glad that my first major short wasdone in the company of women. So
yeah, yeah, that is awesome. So what were some What is the

(06:26):
message the main message that you wantthe viewer to get out of seeing the
film. The main message for thefilm is that we should teach our daughters
the same possibilities we teach our sons, and that women and girls are timeless,
you know, and we should notbe forced to think about certain things
with our ages that we don't askmen to think of, you know.

(06:48):
Allow women to grow and feel limitlessand infinite, and don't always remind us
about our mortality. As we're tryingto get a degree, we're trying to
do things outside of the kitchen.The kitchen beautiful place to become a woman,
but we fit in other rooms oflife too, and that's the main
message of the story, and toallow women to make their own choices and

(07:08):
to celebrate them. And then thefilm I show men supporting that and I
show that you can have men thatare women is too, and when they
come together with us, then realchange is brought about. So that's the
main message. Yeah, any thoughtsabout making this into a feature length film
or another storyline? No, what'salways in the plant. I have a
bunch of other the stories I'm workingon now, but it's always been the

(07:30):
plan for it to be a featurebecause the Nigerian culture is so rich and
I want to show all the dynamicsmoving all at once. And the big
thing in the film is people sprayingmoney. So there's money all over the
grocery store, there's money flying upand down when she's dancing down the aisles,
and I really want to show whatthe money symbolizes within the culture because
people want to be able to providea lot of the choices that immigrant parents

(07:51):
make when they come here. It'snot because they don't want their children to
be able to pursue art or todo different things. They just want them
to have opportunities to be able totake care of themselves here and their family
back at home, and so Ijust want to show all the moving pieces.
And feature length films you have moretime to do that, And I
want to show how round each characteris, because sometimes in shorts people have
like snapshot judgments of characters, butin feature le films you can really get

(08:16):
to know them and be understanding ofwhy they might be a mean dad or
angry mom. You don't know whatthey went through, you know. So
yeah, hopefully Bride Price feature.I believe it's gonna happen though, absolutely
absolutely. You have the energy,the talent, and you have some great
mentors behind you who are going tomake sure you stay on point and make
that dream happen. So going backto the Annapolis Film Festival and winning that

(08:41):
prize in the shorts competition, whathappened next? I mean, I know
you went into production, but interms of everything that you were afforded by
winning that prize, how did thatwork towards helping you finish the film?
I will not have been able todo it. This is my thesis,

(09:03):
you know. And I had noidea that when I became a part of
the competition then I won and thenit was like, Okay, I can
actually this could work. Everything couldhappen all at once. This could I
could finish my thesis and then Iwould present it here and everything would work
out. So I had amazing sponsors. First off, I just want to
say thank you to Lee and Pattyfrom the Napolis Film Festival. They are
phenomenal women and they really they believein you. They'll stand by you and

(09:26):
they'll lift you up even when you'retired. So they have been amazing.
But they brought along Hennegar Media Servicesand they helped with the coloring. They
even did the special effects for us. Yeah, Study Known did the sound
and the fully everything. They wereamazing. We had serious Grip and electric
that helped us get our grips,short lighting wonderful. They were great.

(09:46):
I feel like I'm forgetting some peopleand I feel really bad about this serious
grip Hanneger, Study Unknown, MarylandFilm Office definitely definitely, Oh and Lens
Protogo. Then we had our cameraequipment that they sent it all the way
from Boston. Yeah, like theyreally. Yeah, we were able to
shoot in four K. It reallyhelped us. It was just more of
a more very into me felt likeyou were there through the story. So

(10:07):
I'm very grateful because you know,I go to Howard. We have access
to equipment, but just having amore a bigger range of access to things.
I was really grateful for that.And as a new filmmaker, it
gave me a new chance to sitin spaces that you might not get while
you're still in school. So tobe able to come into a professional studio
and talk to people and learn etiquetteand how to do it business wise and

(10:30):
film, I think is important.And I think anyone who wins this competition
it is a great chance to learn. And so it's been very humbling and
I'm just grateful to have the opportunityto have made this film within not this
film festival. So now I knowyou sat in on the pitches for this
year. Who won? I didn'tknow her name, I can't remember,

(10:52):
but she had this amazing story thatwas based in Mexico. I met her
last night. It was she won. I'm so happy for her. First
off, I up her spirit andI think the thing with being a storyteller
is people want to feel connected,people want to know. We all want
different things in life, but weall have you know, we go through
different things, we all have thesame desires, and I think that her
story had that ability to connect topeople. And so basically her story was

(11:16):
about talking about the Mexican government andwho has control about telling them stories.
And it was actually based on areal life thing. Yes, it was
based on a real life thing thathappened in Mexico. And the little girl
ended up not being real. Andso she's going to go about fake news,
right, and so she's going togo back to Mexico and shoot that.
And so I was talking to herlast night and she says she's at
Stanford right now for a fellowship andI was like, anything you need,
call me, because I was thefirst one, you know, and we

(11:37):
all kind of learned together. Andso I'm happy and I'm sorry. I'm
happy it was a girl. Iknow. I'm happy. It's our time,
you know, It's been such along time since we've had spaces to
tell our stories. And I thinkif you do not see yourself on screen,
how will you know yourself? Youknow? And it's a form of
propaganda to keep out certain people frombeing on screen. And so I'm happy

(11:58):
for her, and she has awonderful spirit, and yeah, she's going
to do a great job. She'sactually already started shooting, and I was
like, they're even ahead of me. I did not have anything, you
know, like, yeah, mine, I had my scripts, I took
pictures at the location, but Ididn't shoot anything yet, you know.
And I was like, this isIt's going to get more and more competitive
each year. So I'm happy Iwent first. Well, you are a

(12:20):
tough fact to follow as well.Definitely, definitely they they shot things already
and I was just like, ohwow, like I didn't even we didn't
even have to do this last year. So it's going to get more and
more competitive. But you know,even knowing that the festival is only like
seven years old, look at allthe things they're doing for people, you
would think that it's been around forlike fifty years, you know. So
I'm excited to be a part ofsuch just sufestival. I'm really grateful,

(12:43):
and I love all the films thatcame in this year, and they represented
people from all walks of life.So yeah, a lot of different a
lot of different stories, a lotof social conscious stories, and some films
that really really elevated the image ofwomen and that that's really important. And
last year when I won, thatwas the theme basically telling the story of

(13:03):
a woman or girls, And soI think it's beautiful to pass the torch
now because it's based upon truth,you know, but yet it's coming from
the lens of a woman, andso I'm so excited for her. Yeah,
it's like the story keeps going andgoing. Yeah, now you touched
on this a little bit. Whatother doors have opened for you besides having

(13:24):
that kinship with Julie dash Well,so I have other doors. So recently
I just got offered an internship throughthe Creative Mind group in Cans And so
it's funny how God works. SoI did. So, so you win
the thirty thousands, but it's notphysical cash. People think that you win
physical cash. You don't realize youneed other money to shoot the phone.

(13:45):
So I did a seed in Sparkcampaign. I wrote this whole script.
It was like a short documentary andthe documentary is basically I asked, I
curated questions and I asked, Ibrought an actress in some real life people
to answer questions, all age based, and I called it age and it
was like how old are you?So? How old were the first time
someone said you need to get married, and I'd put men and women from
all walks of life. And Iuse that in the Horizon Awards, even

(14:05):
though I use it for the seedonSpark, I use that same short.
You have to submit something for theHorizon Awards for sun Dance, and you
have to submit a two minute video, and I was like, I don't
have any two minute films, butI was like, oh, let me
just send this, and so Isent it. So I thought that I
didn't win that. I got anemail like a couple weeks ago and they're
like, hey, it's a semifinalists. We want to offer you a
scholarship to go to kans And Iwas just like, oh am, I
gonna say, you're serious, Likeyou know what I mean. But that

(14:28):
was just me really caring about mystory and then thinking about other creative ways
to get people to understand the conceptof bride price. You know. But
I always say that like it's notabout how much you have, but what
you do with what you have.So that's definitely another experience that has like
come out of this. Yeah,but a lot of people have just been
like reaching out to me just sayinghow much I love the story, and

(14:48):
people don't know that I've been workingon it even like Julie was even a
part of it before I even wonthis. Yes, so what I'm saying,
that's like, but she believed init, you know, And I'm
grateful for the people that believed init even before. There are a lot
of people now they're just like,I'm so proud of you, and I'm
like, thank you so much,but donate to the next film, you
know what I mean, because weneed support. We need support. And

(15:09):
oh, another thing came. Iwas able to start my own production company.
It's called Drika Production. I waswaiting for that because I actually saw
that as part of the trailer thatyou had started. Yeah, I said,
out my own production company with myfamily. And I'm really proud of
it because I actually shot at Episodiceven before this, and I just submitted
that for some festivals and so Ihave a lot of work that I plan
on putting out there, and soI'm grateful. I graduate dismay, I

(15:31):
cannot wait. There's just been alot of people that have been behind me.
But I will say this, Ido going to hard University is one
of the best decisions I ever madein my life. I was able to
be a Sundance Fellow through BT andBlack House, just to meet so many
people and people who genuinely cared aboutmy future and making sure that they would
see more people like me in thefuture. It's been a blessing. And

(15:52):
so this is just meeting Lee andPatti Fild in Neapolis Film Festival just like
wow, like all these things arehappening one by one because I found out
about it through the Women in Filmthey had I don't you know Women in
Film they had the money. Yeah, I found out about it here.
They had it on the list.They have a list called they sent UPVI
a email and they put the NapolisFilm Festival competition and I happened to you
see your name mean? And sothen I was like, oh okay,

(16:15):
and it was their first year.I was like, okay, I'm gonna
apply and then I ended up winning. And so it's like, you just
never know where your blessing is.But I think it's important to be prepared
for your blessing. So before that, I was already working on my script.
I was already working on my idea. But yeah, three years later,
you're amazing, You're absolutely amazing.What advice would you give to filmmakers

(16:38):
that are looking to reach the heightsthat you have been able to bount,
and then specifically to women filmmakers,I would say, don't give up on
yourself, no matter what anybody's tellingyou, no matter if they're saying,
well, what are you going todo with this? Well, where are
you gonna work? Where are yougonna do? Not give up on yourselves

(17:00):
because the questions they're asking you arebased on their doubts of the things they
haven't achieved in their own lives.You know, focus on your story,
what makes you unique. I feellike storytellers sometimes try to make stories that
they think are popular, But thethings that you go through in your life
are designed for the stories you're supposedto tell. And if you just took
time to look within yourself, lookwithin your own pain, the things that

(17:21):
you're going through, you'll find thatstory, you know. I think what
I would say is also be veryserious. You know, people think that
if you're not becoming a doctor,then your craft is not serious. You
don't they don't know how hard,especially as an artist, you have to
work just to reach a certain levelof you know, respects, you know,
so I would tell them, like, really work hard. They're gonna
be nights where you're just going tobe at home. You can't make it

(17:42):
to that party, you know,but in the end you'll have a product
that you're really proud of. Butjust do not give up on yourself.
Find people around you that can mentoryou, and then just find friends who
pray for you genuinely, you know, take care of yourself, you know,
drink drink water, healthy, keepa balanced mind and breathe and everything

(18:03):
is going to work out. You'renot in competition with anyone. Always keep
the story first. That is mymodel. No matter whatever you're going through,
stay true to the stories that youwant to tell, and you can
never go wrong. So yeah,well, thank you very much for taking
time to come back, and congratulationsto you again. Oh yeah, yeah,
but definitely worth the wait, andthank you dream Catchers for tuning in

(18:29):
and we will see you next timeand until then, catch fire on purpose.

(19:14):
But Annapolis is such a beautiful city, and yeah, it's been so
fun That film festival is obviously reallypopular. I'm so excited that there's such
a great turnout. So yeah,looking forward to tonight. We're a beautiful
town on the water, so weour festival comes with a lifestyle, and

(19:37):
it comes with a walk ability thatyou can go to different venues and walk
past restaurants and really, you know, take it all in on foot.
I think a festival is going togive people opportunity to see lots of films
that they wouldn't otherwise see. Youmight have never heard of it. You
know, you're breaking through on Netflixwith hundreds of films, and so this
gives people that really like Center achance to come and sort through the various

(20:02):
films and see films that they mightnot have even heard of before. First
of all, it brings the communitytogether. You get to see the best
films that are being made like they'recutting edge, they're happening right now.
So it's great to have a placewhere filmmakers can showcase their work to a
larger audience. And so it's veryexciting to come to Annapolis and do a

(20:29):
Q and A and get to havethat conversation because ultimately, I think that's
why we were interested in making themovie was to begin a conversation. And
I think that going to different festivalsand seeing the excitement that people have for
film and for storytelling and storytellers Ithink is so important. Storytelling is something
that just we as humans have donefor you know, millions of years,

(20:49):
and more stories need to get outthere. The Writers' Haveaven Show was created
to showcase the passion process and theprojects from writers of literature, television and
film. Stream our shows on iHeartRadio, speaker iTunes so no SoundCloud, Spotify,

(21:15):
Alexa, and YouTube. We dropnew episodes every week, so subscribe
and never miss a show. Findme on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
and tumble at author b Helena andvisit our website at www dot Writersavenshow dot
com. See you in the havenand until next time, catch fire on

(21:36):
purpose? Are you go where wego? We're gonna go out there to
raid, gonna get away? Okay? Yeah? So what everybody has a

(22:15):
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(23:03):
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(23:26):
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