ALASKALAND TELLS THE STORY
...of Chukwuma, an Alaskan-raised Nigerian struggling to balance the expectations of his traditional Nigerian parents and the larger world around him. After a tragic car crash, Chukwuma is separated from his younger sister, Chidinma, who moves to Nigeria with their uncle until she becomes of legal age.
Two years later the siblings reconnect to find their estrangement has created new personal and cultural frictions in ways that bring them closer to each other and their roots, as well as help them define what it means to be a Nigerian in Alaska.
Born in Rivers State, Nigeria, filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu was raised in Fairbanks, Alaska to parents who settled in Alaska as engineers. She grew up navigating between her Nigerian traditions and her American Arctic environment. While not autobiographical, Alaskaland reflects the environment and conditions that inform the development of her layered identities.