Chinonye Chukwu, Danielle Deadwyler & Whoopi Goldberg on Till | NYFF60

Director Chinonye Chukwu and actors Danielle Deadwyler and Whoopi Goldberg discuss Till, a Spotlight selection of this year’s festival, moderated by NYFF Executive Director, Eugene Hernandez. Chinonye Chukwu’s modern-day death-row drama Clemency was one of the most accomplished breakthroughs in recent American cinema. The director has traveled back to the 1950s to tell the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, the Chicago woman whose son, Emmett Till, was lynched while visiting cousins in Mississippi and whose body became an indelible image of the horrors of American racism. Employing a direct, unflinching, yet sensitive gaze, Chukwu has created the definitive drama of this woman’s grief and resilience, and in an astonishing performance, Danielle Deadwyler captures both a mother’s indescribable heartbreak and her inspiring ascension to the role of civil rights activist. Till is a momentous reminder of an ever-present tragedy, featuring painstaking production design, subtly expressive camera framing and composit