Nikyatu Jusy was born in Atlanta, Georgia to Sierra Leonean parents Hannah Khoury and Ronald Jusu. She attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina from 2001-2005, intending to becoming a biomedical engineer. An unexpected meeting with a screenwriting professor introduced her to the world of filmmaking and she changed her focus to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Film/Cinema/Video Studies. She later studied narrative filmmaking at New York University's Tisch Graduate Film school from 2006 - 2011 and received a Master of Fine Arts in Film/Cinema/Video Studies.
Career
Jusu’s second year NYU Graduate Film Exercise made in 2008, African Booty Scratcher, is a semi-autobiography that tells the story of Isatu, who is a young Sierra Leonean American. The story highlights the conflict of differing cultures while Isatu contemplates which culture to please when picking a prom dress. With a budget of $7,000, her self-written and self-directed film was eventually acquired by HBO. Jusu released Say Grace Before Drowning in 2010 with director and writer credits again. With a bigger budget of $35,000, Jusu created a film that explains the relationship between a young girl and her African refugee mother. This film was also acquired by HBO. In 2011, Jusu released the narrative film, Black Swan Theory, that was labeled as an experimental work. The plot of the film revolves around Sonya, who is a psychiatric casualty of war, and follows her accepted assignment to murder someone as she struggles for money. Jusu’s budget for her self-written self-directed film was $3,000. Two years later in 2013, Jusu began developing her feature film debut, FREE THE TOWN, which follows the narrative of three different lives in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The film reveals that Sierra Leone’s past has a grip on the struggling future nation. The film was one of the twelve screenplays selected to participate in Sundance Institute's inaugural Diverse Writers Workshop. Flowers was released in 2015, Jusu co-wrote and co-directed Flowers with Yvonne Michelle Shirley: a classmate from NYU Grad Film. Flowers toured the festival circuit, being featured at the Milwaukee Film Fest New Orleans Film Fest, Urbanworld Film Fest, BlackStar Film Fest, and Rooftop Film Festival. The coming of age film tells the story of two Brooklyn teens who are looking to get revenge on their teacher until their plan backfires. In an interview, Jusu explains that she wanted to draw attention to the struggles of black girls in school because she feels that only black boys are in the spotlight of struggle in the United States education system. Flowers was acquired by HBO and received the HBO Short Film Award. In 2019, Jusu debuted the short film Suicide by Sunlight starring Natalie Paul and executive produced by Terence Nance. The film was one of the five films to be nominated to the Tribeca Film Institute's Through Her Lens program, where Jusu eventually won the award to receive full production funding. Jusu is credited as director and co-writer of the film, alongside R. Shanea Williams. Suicide by Sunlight is centered around a Black vampire protected from the sun because of her melanin. Battling to suppress her bloodlust to kill other humans, the vampire searches for a human mate to extend her lineage. The film touches on themes of sexual identity, racial identity, interracial relationships, and marginalized communities. Suicide by Sunlight premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019. She has taught at institutions such as Parsons School of Design, and Tribeca Film Institute.
Awards
Nikyatu Jusu earned The Most Promising Filmmaker Award from Duke University. Nikyatu’s short film African Booty Scratcher earned her many festival acceptances and awards, including a Director’s Guild Honorable Mention, HBO Short Film Award and JT3 Artist Award. Say Grace Before Drowning is Nikyatu Jusu’s short film that won the Spike Lee Fellowship Award, Director's Guild of America Jury Award, and HBO Short Film Award. It also won the Panavision Equipment Grant, Princess Grace Foundation Grant, and Puffin Foundation Grant. Jusu was the winner of the Shadow and Act Filmmaker Challenge for her short film Black Swan Theory.Flowers is another one of her short films that won the HBO short film award and was her third film acquired by HBO. Her screenplay Free The Town was selected for Africa’s most prestigious Film Market, the 2013 Durban Film Mart and one of 5 narrative films selected for Film Independent’s Fast Track. It was one of 12 projects invited to participate in Sundance Institute's inaugural Diverse Writers Workshop. Free the town was never shot because of the Ebola outbreak. Her narrative film Suicide by Sunlight was awarded a Rooftop Films/Adrienne Shelly Foundation Short Film Grant and was funded by the production grant Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and Chanel. The film was one of the 5 to be nominated, and won the grand prize. Nikyatu was nominated for and won a residency at Headlands Artist Residency, which she attended in July 2018 to work on her latest feature script. Nikyatu and her co-writer R. Shanea Williams were 2017 recipients of a full production grant as well as production support from the Tribeca CHANEL Women's Filmmaker Program, Through Her Lens.
