NNANNA is a non-fiction director/producer, writer, and artist based between lisboa & nyc <3
connecting beauty in the margins, interiority, and outsider imaginations of the past, present, & future
through research & development, solutionary methods of experimentation, and archival creation, he’s working across mediums in a project-based practice
Select Affiliates
National Museum of Lagos, SHOWstudio, Nowness, Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens (GR), Cinema Galleggiante (Floating Cinema) Art Festival in Venice (IT), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Aga Khan Museum, Artspace, U.N. Women’s Conference, UNESCO, Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, Brooklyn Film Festival, SIMA, Chale Wote Street Art Festival in Ghana, Lagos Biennial in Nigeria.
Education
M.A New York University, Department of Art & Public Policy.
B.F.A. New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
Other: Padi Certified Scuba Diver, M1 License
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2023 – Off the Beaten Path: Outside the Hero’s Journey
“This year our theme is Off the Beaten Path: Outside the Hero’s Journey –– Realty is more complicated, more collaborative, and more interesting than what we have come to call the Hero’s Journey. It does not follow a beginning, middle, and end, with rising action and turning points that deliver a resolution with all threads tied up neatly in a bow. Many non-fiction makers have always created work that is outside the Hero’s Journey.” - MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute
2022
• Guest lecture at University of Cape Town. Course “Contemporary Marketing Issues”
Presentation : The Politics of Visuals in the Age of Exponential Media & Competing Neuro-Dominance
• Guest Lecture at New York University, Gallatin. Course “Art and Storytelling for Our Future”
2022
‘Earthseed’ screens in public exhibition with the Onassis Stegi cultural centre in Athens, Greece.
The large-scale public art exhibition titled “Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams, and Data” is open to the public, May 23 - June 07.
‘Earthseed’ screens in public exhibition with the Onassis Stegi cultural centre in Athens, Greece.
The large-scale public art exhibition titled “Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams, and Data” is open to the public, May 23 - June 07.
‘Megolonyo: With a Mother You Are Rich’ screens at the UN WOMEN’s conference.
In 2019, Justice received a Social Impact Media Award (SIMA) for his work with women’s work collectives in Northern Uganda.
2020
Essay, “Many Rules to Learn”, published in paperback in “Now That We’re Men”.
‘Megolonyo: With a Mother You Are Rich’ screening for International Rural Women’s Day at the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding, UNESCO, in Seoul, South Korea.
“MEGOLONYO: WITH A MOTHER YOU ARE RICH portrays the power of women’s solidarity and their endless endeavor to overcome the challenges they face.”
2020
‘Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time’, traveling exhibition.
Interview with Edith Ekunke, Director of Museums for National Commission for Museums and Monuments, at the National Museum of Lagos.
‘Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time’, traveling exhibition.
Interview with Edith Ekunke, Director of Museums for National Commission for Museums and Monuments, at the National Museum of Lagos.
‘Earthseed’ interview on NOWNESS.
‘I Know You So Well’ screening at Nitehawk Film Festival.
©2023 JUSTICE NNANNA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
EARTHSEED
ABOUT
Earthseed, commissioned by NOWNESS, was distributed to 4.5 million subscribers.
Inspired by Octavia E. Butler’s written philosophy, Earthseed , the video poem situates life on Earth as a collective. Imperialism, prejudice and perseverance, ecological degradation, water as life and weapon, data as reality, Earthseed poses questions left unanswered around the Connected Era. Seeking to relate the Overview effect to Butler’s philosophy, Earthseed situates life on Earth as a collective - challenging the anthropocentric views of human priority and retorting with “God is Change.”
Director, Justice Nnanna. Full credits below. Q&A on NOWNESS here.
SCREENINGS
May - June 2022, Onassis Stegi’s public art program: Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams, and Data. Athena, Greece.
CREDITS
DURATION: 14 MINUTES 34 SECONDS
DIRECTOR & EDITOR: JUSTICE NNANNA
PRODUCERS: BAR HARIELY, JUSTICE NNANNA
COMMISSION: NOWNESS, KATIE METCALFE
PRODUCTION COMPANY: STUDIO ISA
PRINCIPAL CINEMATOGRAPHY: JUSTICE NNANNA, DOMINIC MILLER
DRONE: JUSTICE NNANNA
COLORIST: SAMANTHA DAY
SOUND DESIGN: JUSTICE NNANNA
SOUND MIX: BEN HARDIE
RESEARCH: DESIREE KONG
ONLINE EDITOR: NICK POMEROY
COLLABORATORS: SHEILA CHUKWULOZIE (POET AND MOVEMENT ARTIST, LAGOS, NIGERIA), DAFE OBORO (PRODUCER, LAGOS,NIGERIA), FRANKIE GRINNER (VOCALIST, USA), SHAUN WOLFE (UNDERWATER CINEMATOGRAPHER,USA), JEREMY GRIER (TALENT, USA), MARTINICA.SPACE (TITLE DESIGNER, BRAZIL)
©2023 JUSTICE NNANNA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
I KNOW YOU SO WELL
ABOUT
‘I Know You So Well’ is an intimate portrait of the people who guide us into and out of this world.
A group of eleven healthcare professionals process their experience as caregivers. Together with artists Rachel Bernsen & Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, eleven strangers working as caregivers across the spectrum of healthcare created a Sound & Movement Choir.
Director Justice Nnanna rendered the piece into an emotional expression of reflections on the work they do as caregivers and its meaning in their lives.
‘I Know You So Well’ was given permission to feature the music of Academy Award Winning Composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto.
SCREENINGS
2019, Nitehawk Film Festival. Brooklyn, NY, U.S.
CREDITS
DURATION: 9 MINUTES 30 SECONDS
DIRECTOR/ PRODUCER: JUSTICE NNANNA
EDITOR: DANIEL BOVENTER
ARTISTS: RACHEL BERNSEN, RACHEL KAUDER NALEBUFF
COMMISSION: NOWNESS, KATIE METCALFE
PRODUCTION COMPANY: STUDIO ISA
PRINCIPAL CINEMATOGRAPHY: JUSTICE NNANNA, DOMINIC MILLER
MUSIC DIRECTION: TAYLOR HO BYNUM
MUSICAL COMPOSITION: RYUICHI SAKAMOTO
COLORIST/SOUND MIX: WARREN HELLER
CAREGIVERS / PERFORMERS: ZIAEL APONTE, JANICE BAKER, NATHALIE BONAFE, MARIAN EVANS, BILL FISCHER, ANN T. GREENE, LYNN LANTIERI, ALEJANDRO MESTRE, JACKIE TRIMBLE SHAPIRO, JENESSA PAYANO STARK, LAURIE SWEET.
©2023 JUSTICE NNANNA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
IGUAZU FALLS
PLANT LIFE
There are about 435,000 unique land plant species on Earth.1
36.5% of all land plant species are "exceedingly rare": they have been observed or recorded less than five times, climate change and human land use are now disproportionately impacting rare species.2
Peer-reviewed studies estimate that 1/3 of all plant and animal species can go extinct in the next 50 years due to ecological disaster.3