A Special Mention from the jury goes to The Archive: Queer Nigerians by Simisolaoluwa Akande.

The Archive: Queer Nigerians stands out as a powerful exploration of themes, adeptly addressing mental health, queerness, Blackness, Yoruba and Esan culture, intersexuality, persecution, and exile in a gentle and tender way. This short film offers a poignant glimpse into Nigerian LGBTQ+ community living in UK. The strength of the piece lies in the suggestive use of visual metaphors, which are skillfully interwoven with poetic elements and a well-crafted soundscape, thereby opening up emotional spaces.
In acknowledging the historical context, the film subtly alludes to the erasure of queerness in former Nigerian cultures, disrupted by colonialization and the influence of missionaries who imposed Christian values, extinguishing the once-inclusive wisdom that encompassed diverse identities and experiences.

Each frame serves as a canvas of intricate layers, delicately conveying the complexities of the human experience with grace and resonance, while navigating the fluid boundaries between fiction and documentary. The film's meticulous attention to character development gives each figure, including the narrator, a distinctive formal world and unique aesthetic, immersing the audience in individual journeys, struggles, and triumphs.

Noteworthy is the film's homage to cinematic pioneers in feminist decolonial essayistic experimental filmmaking, such as the Sankofa Film and Video Collective, Maya Deren, and Trịnh Thị Minh Hà. The concept of fictional appropriation of archives, akin to Saidiya Hartman's "critical fabulation," adds an intellectual layer, prompting reflection on narrative construction and storytelling power dynamics, filling the gaps of the untold.

"The Archive: Queer Nigerians" is a moving and thought-provoking short film, earning this Special Mention for its exceptional ability to engage, challenge, and inspire within the constraints of its brief duration.

The festival jury 2024
Florian Opitz (director, writer, journalist)
Evelyn Rack (film editor, media artist)
Zara Zandieh (director, filmmaker)