Mm

... of that.

Um, and I felt that very strongly, I mean, in ex- in several ways.

For me, my, my interest in film- filmmaking started with a real desire to tell stories about communities that I was aware of and had just, had not seen any kind of storytelling around, right? So I left Nigeria when I was 17.

I went to the States, and it was, it was really kinda like my first real understanding of just the complete lack of nuanced storytelling around Africans in global world.

I, I...

It really kind of was a very visceral felt experience of realizing just how flat the picture was.

Um, how hard has that, has that been?

What inspired you?

Yeah.

Um, Lagos inspired me, honestly.

Um, I was born and raised in Lagos.

I lived there the first 17 years of my life, and when I was writing my debut, I knew I wanted to come back home and make a film from the inside of Lagos, and I wanted to center working women, and particularly sex workers, because I wanted to center women who have been made invisible in the city.

Growing up, there's so much shaming around sexuality, um, and people will call a woman an ashawo, which is a prostitute, as a insult.

Um, and I wondered, who are these women who we're calling these names? Like, who is behind that slur? Um, who is that human? I want to understand their complexity.

How did you do that? [laughs]