Clemency Is The Must-Watch Movie Of Our Time – British Vogue

In the minds of many, the United States of America is synonymous with its epithet the land of the free. That sentiment is difficult to square, however, with its statistics on prisons. The nation has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world with 655 inmates per 100,000 of the national population. Furthermore, 28 of its 50 states still enact the death penalty.

It is against this merciless backdrop that the award-winning writer and directorChinonye Chukwu, (currently working on the upcoming television adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi AdichiesAmericanah, starringLupita NyongoandUzo Aduba),setsClemency,her latest feature film.

Its a bleak character study highlighting the dehumanising effect that a lifetime career in the correctional sector has on prison warden Bernadine Williams, played by Alfre Woodard. Years of carrying out death row executions have taken their toll; memories of a recently botched execution plague her daily and the emotional void in her marriage grows. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.

Having won a grand jury prize at Sundance last year, Clemency is only picking up momentum. ItsUK release coincides with forceful and unyielding calls to defund the highly militarised US police force which in turn were catalysed by the Black Lives Matteruprisings in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of policeofficers.

I chatted toChukwu via Zoom she in LA, me in London about her thoughts on the indie film industry, racial tensions, prison abolition and mental health.

Wow, what a question. I was really excited to scope the prize, but I wish that I was the tenth or even the fiftieth person of my demographic to win the award, rather than the first. I wish that these milestones didnt still have to be broached.

Right now, we are really asking ourselves, what does justice look like? What does rehabilitation look like? And is that really feasible and possible given the current systems we have? One of the things that I think Clemency really interrogates is the function and the necessity of prisons and popular punishments specifically, but prisons and the social complex and the criminal legal system in the US [in general].

For me, I think we have to really reimagine what justice looks like, completely separate from what we have now. That means making society much more equitable and liveable. So, we need to dismantle the white supremacist capitalist systems that are embedded in criminal legal systems. Im not reform-minded at all, because I dont believe there is reforming a system that has its roots in enslavement.

I was inspired to make the film the morning after Troy Davis [an African-American man convicted of the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Georgia, US, whose death became a symbol of racial imbalance and the arguments against the death penalty] was executed in 2011.I spent four years researching for Clemency. I spoke with six different wardens, interviewed corrections officers, death row lawyers, lieutenants and a director of corrections about their experiences working in prisons and in death row facilities. I spoke with men currently on death row and one man who was exonerated from death row, after being incarcerated for 28 years for a crime he did not commit.

Im really good at emotionally compartmentalising. For years, I really just suppressed a part of myself emotionally in order to make the film because I had a job to do. There were definitely moments when I was researching, particularly when I was reading testimonies from men who were on death row, where I was literally in tears while I was writing.

Once I was done writing I just shut that part myself off and made the film. But there was one scene on set where I couldnt hold it together, the part where Anthony [Woods, an inmate who maintains his innocence] is alone in his cell. I was holding it together so well but then saw the scene play out in monitor. I just had to just let it out and sob for a while.

I made an intentional decision to not focus on what Anthony was convicted of, because I didnt want the audiences ability to see his humanity, to be contingent upon knowing whether hes innocent or guilty.

I think that as a society we tend to want to know what someone did to determine what we think about them, and that gets in the way of us really questioning and interrogating the system. And so I just wanted to take that away and really force audiences to grapple with his humanity.

Alfre Woodard and director Chinonye Chukwu discussing a scene on set.

Paul Sarkis

We dont see any psychological support for any of the characters in the film. Is this representative of the US system?

Yes, a lot of prisons dont have the psychological support. There are some prisons where a few wardens definitely provide, or try to provide some psychological support, but we dont see it a lot. I definitely didnt see it when I was teaching in prisons, and thats part of the dehumanisation process.

When I was writing the Bernadine character and talking it through with Alfre Woodard, who plays her, we both came to an understanding that for this character, her career comes first. Work defines her. She has worked in this particular prison system for so long, shes become numb to it. And she lives in that numbness.

Yes, and that just goes to show how this kind of systematic dehumanisation that is inherent in prison spaces, and specifically capital punishment, affects those who are tasked to oversee or carry out that dehumanisation. It cuts off a part of them as well, that allows them to be fully human and fully feel.

More states are questioning the economic feasibility of the death penalty, but I hope that through films such as this, the abolition movements continues to grow stronger.

Clemencyis released on Bohemia Media and Curzon Home Cinema streaming platforms from Friday 17 July