Eseoghene Obrimah

For the Love of Monsters

Cinema Art + Science

Project Statement

I was talking with my best friend one day. It was one of those existential crisis conversations, and she said to me: “I remember one day I was playing with a friend at school. She told me what her uncle was doing to her when no one was there. I told her what my cousins were doing to me. And we went on playing.” For The Love of Monsters is about that moment. Better yet, it’s about the circumstances that lead to that moment. The behavior, the environment, the action and inaction that allows something so traumatizing to be reduced to playtime banter between two little girls.

For the Love of Monsters is a suspense thriller about a soft-spoken Nigerian girl visiting relatives in the US, who must reconcile her differences with her American-born cousin in order for them to defeat the monster living under their beds. The story interrogates how we protect and feed toxic traditions because they are a part of culture and we believe they should be defended. We follow the girls on a harrowing journey to learning that they can’t rely on the adults in their lives and the only way to secure their freedom from oppressive cultures is to work together and stand up for themselves.

The story is told from the point of view of a Nigerian girl, a specific and unique perspective. By utilizing the universally recognizable idea of a monster under the bed to portray the villain, the film is able to appeal to a global audience and gives room for people to attach whatever their monster is to the creature and show that, sometimes, we, ourselves, invite the horror into our homes.

Artist Biography

Eseoghene Obrimah (or Ese) is a writer and producer from Lagos, Nigeria, who believes that until the lion has its own storyteller, the hunter will always have the best part of the story. Her experiences as an international student and advocate for Black students and survivors of sexual assault informs her choices as a filmmaker. She focuses on stories that analyze social issues within the genres of fantasy, magical realism, and africanfuturism. Her short film, ​35, ​a social thriller about the short life expectancy of Black transwomen, won the Best of Festival Student Award at the Dayton Independent Film Festival and the North Dakota Human Rights Film Festival. In 2019, Ese received the Movie Magic Producer Award. In 2020, she was awarded the Alfred P. Weisman Award and the RedBull Arts Microgrant.

Ese has had her writing published in the ​Campus Speaks ​Magazine and in ​Anti-Black Racism and Epistemic Violence ​by Dr. Kyra Shahid. She graduated from Columbia College Chicago with an MFA in Creative Producing and is now working towards a career that proves that culture doesn’t make people, people make culture.

Connect

www.eseobrimah.com/for-the-love-of-monsters

Instagram: @fortheloveofmonstersfilm

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