---
title: 'Interview with Clemency filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu'
description: 'Writer/director Chinonye Chukwu speaks with DPIC Senior Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndulue about her award-winning new film, Clemency.'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/resources/podcasts/discussions-with-dpic/interview-with-clemency-filmmaker-chinonye-chukwu'
section: podcasts
date: '2019-08-27T09:47:00-04:00'
updated: '2019-09-06T12:06:42-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

Writer/director Chinonye Chukwu speaks with DPIC Senior Director of Research and Special Projects Ngozi Ndulue about her award-winning new film, *Clemency*. Chukwu discusses her inspiration for the story, the years-long process of research and immersion that helped her shape the narrative, and her hopes for how this film will be received.

*Clemency* stars Alfre Woodard as death-row prison warden Bernadine Williams and Aldis Hodge as death-row prisoner Anthony Woods. The film focuses on Bernadine, Chukwu explains, and “navigates her emotional and psychological down spiral as she prepares to execute … Woods.” *Clemency* won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize for Drama at the Sundance Film Festival in February 2019, the first time the award has been given to a movie directed by an African-American woman.