Stanley Kalu’s “The Obituary Of Tunde Johnson” Premieres At Toronto Film Festival
Nigerian-born movie producer, Stanley Kalu, recently premiered his latest effort, “The Obituary of Tunde Johnson” at the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival. The film was directed by Ali LeRoi (Executive Producer of “Everybody Hates Chris”) and stars Steven Silver, Spencer Neville and Nicola Peltz.
This is not the first time, Kalu is winning with this title. Sometime in 2018, Kalu, while a student at USC, entered the story from which his winning film was created in a screenplay writing competition, The Launch. The story earned Kalu the prize of $50,000 education grant and a chance to have his story produced with a budget of at least $1,000,000. He was only 19!
“The Obituary of Tunde Johnson” is the story of a black gay teenager who has to relive his death over and over. The film tackles racism, homophobia and police brutality, using the device of the time loop, which constantly has you reliving the tragedy with Tunde. But the movie is not all shock and gore, neither is the repetitive nature of the scenes boring. Every loop peel back more layers of Tunde’s experience with his wealthy, loving parents and their Nigerian background/heritage.
Speaking at the world premiere of the movie and why he chose to use this method to tell the story, he said that moving to America showed him that people within the intersect which he existed were hated and killed everyday. It was this repetitive action of death caused by racial profiling and homophobia that influenced the choice to use the time loop.
By: The Arubayi Keme
