There are filmmakers who simply want to make films for entertainment and there are those who make films that move, impact and capture the soul of African story and cinema, Shedrack Salami ,as a documentary filmmaker, belongs to the latter.
The Nigerian filmmaker and cinematographer's career leans strongly on his visual art foundation that later progressed fully into documentary filmmaking. This is driven by the quest to capture societal issues affecting humans with honesty, truth and responsibility.
With his documentary film, Beyond Olympic Glory, Salami has received recognition across local and international stages for his immersive storytelling approach, clinching awards back home. These recognitions include the notable Best Documentary win at the recently concluded 12th Africa Magic Viewers' Awards Choice Awards (AMVCA).
The documentary film follows Cynthia Ogunsemilore, who defies all odds to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, but a doping scandal shatters her dreams. Salami’s Beyond Olympic Glory has won over 10 awards for its poignant and powerful portrayal of Ogunsemilore’s resilience and hope amidst her grief. Among such recognitions also include Best Documentary at the Filmjoint Awards 2026 and Best of Nollywood Awards (BON).
In this exclusive interview with The Nollywood Reporter, Salami unpacks the bitter-sweet journey of making Cynthia Ogunsemilore’s emotional documentary, the film’s global emergence as a festival favorite, and notable award successes.
Finding Documentary and Passion
For Shedrack Salami, his journey into documentary filmmaking started with the need to speak about society and the issues that affect humans. The foundation began in visual art in 2014, where the filmmaker used drawing, painting and, especially, body art to confront social issues like drug abuse, sexual violence, xenophobia, electoral injustice and body shaming. “I was always drawn to stories that carried weight, stories that reflected what people were going through but often couldn’t say out loud,” he points out.
Later on, Salami argues that these forms of art weren't sufficient anymore to pass his message because he wanted more than still images. “I wanted people to not just see something beautiful or provocative on canvas or the human body alone; I wanted them to hear directly from the people living these realities,” he shares. This curiosity led him into photography and later on, in 2019, he picked up video for the first time using his phone and that moment changed everything.
Fast forward to 2021, Salami found himself on his first documentary set, through a friend, Leiba Love, who connected him with Nigerian producer Priscilla Nnwana. Lessons and moments from the experience confirmed that he wasn’t just interested in documentary filmmaking, but he belonged to it.
“I went home and started dreaming bigger,” he reveals. Continuing, he claims: “For me, what keeps the passion alive is the responsibility to people. I’m driven by the need to tell real stories with honesty, to give voice to experiences that would otherwise remain unseen.”
After that, the filmmaker began studying obsessively, watching the work of filmmakers he admired and teaching himself the craft. As the popular parlance goes, the rest is now history. “Because if I was going to ask people to trust me with their truth, I needed to be ready to do so with a sufficient level of understanding, creatively and technically,” Salami argues.
Impressive Creative Journey and Recognitions
Beyond Olympic Glory is one of such stories that have deeply redefined perceptions around documentaries in Nigeria. Little wonder, a Nigerian entertainment website named it one of the best Nigerian films. According to Salami, making Beyond Olympic Glory was one of the most demanding experiences of his life.
Through the journey of the film, he recalls that there were moments when he and his team almost stopped working on the project. There were also moments filled with doubt, emotional strain, and times when continuing felt nearly impossible. He noted that it became even harder after Ogunsemilore was suspended from the Olympics.
At that point, it honestly felt like the end of the production too. “But I held on because I believed the story mattered. I believed that telling it had the potential to spark conversations and bring change to the systems and lives it directly affects, especially for young women and athletes whose struggles often go unseen,” Salami postulates.
With the story built on this perseverance and determination, when recognition started coming in, globally including at the AMVCA, it was validating. Salami confirms that it was emotional for him. It felt like affirmation for every difficult decision: every moment he chose to hold on to the story and present it as honest and as uncomfortable as it was. “More than anything, I’m grateful that the story is now being seen and touching lives across different places. That has always been the goal for me,” he announces.
Professionally, he noted that the experience with Beyond Olympic Glory has been transformative especially because, for a long time, documentaries in Nigeria were often viewed as secondary, more informational than cinematic. Salami concludes, thus: “I believe Beyond Olympic Glory has helped expand that conversation. And I hope it continues to open doors, not just for me, but for young African filmmakers who need to see that our stories can travel far without losing their authenticity.”
Above all, he observes the journey with Beyond Olympic Glory taught him patience and responsibility, noting that working with real human experiences requires care. He says the journey has taught him not to rush people’s truths, but to sit with them, honor them and tell their stories with dignity and respect.
Beyond awards, Salami said the most rewarding feedback or moments since the film’s success are the human ones: when someone tells him they feel seen. Fulfilment is when the audience begin to talk differently about the issues in the film, about sports systems, youth and women struggle and the quiet barriers people face while chasing dreams.
He recalls a journalist who once reached out after watching the film, saying it addressed something he had struggled to express through writing alone. “That alone stayed with me,” Salami emphasizes, “because it showed me the film was doing more than screening, it was opening up important conversations that can bring about change.”
Salami believes the success of Beyond Olympic Glory has changed his perspective on how African or local stories are received globally. “For a long time, there has been this assumption that our stories need to be adjusted or repackaged to reach a global audience,” he critiques.
Contrary to this, he believes Beyond Olympic Glory proves otherwise. It shows that the more specific and honest a story is, the more universal it becomes. He stresses people from completely different parts of the world connected to the film not because it was ‘globalized’ but because it was truthful.
Salami reiterates that African filmmakers have consistently underestimated the value of their own narratives for too long. This is why they fail to recognize that the world isn't looking for a diluted version of their stories since there's a real appetite for what they carry, told by them, in full.
Emotional Premise, Creating Balance and Challenges
Beyond Olympic Glory draws from a rather emotional or tragic premise with Ogunsemilore’s story; however, the biggest challenge, according Salami, was telling the full weight of her story without using her pain as a spectacle for gaining momentum.
Salami explains that he was very conscious, from the outset, that the story would go beyond being a narrative about struggle, but about humanity. He notes that while the story spotlights pain, there is also dignity, resilience, humor and meaningful silence. “And I tried as much as possible; I try not to manipulate emotion. Instead, I focus on showing Cynthia's life fully and not just in her lowest moments, but in her wholeness.”
Hope, in the story, for Salami, came naturally the moment when they decided to stay focused on the courage it took for Ogunsemilore to speak up after the doping scandal that stopped her Olympic dream.
“From the beginning, we were very intentional about everything. Beyond Olympic Glory deals with pain, disappointment, sacrifice and the emotional cost of chasing greatness within a difficult system. But I didn’t want audiences to leave feeling hopeless or simply pitying the protagonist,” Salami illuminates.
As a documentary filmmaker, Salami points out his responsibility to remember that the story is someone’s real life, not just a fictional narrative. This means that every creative decision from the interviews to the pacing, the pauses and even what they chose not to show came from a place of care and respect.
Story Resonance and Global Appeal
On why Beyond Olympic Glory continues to deeply resonate with audiences around the world, the filmmaker believes people are naturally connected to something deeply human in it. At its core, Beyond Olympic Glory is about dreams, sacrifice, identity, disappointment, resilience and the silent cost of pursuing something bigger than oneself. “No matter where people come from, those emotions are universal,” Salami declares.
He notes that one may not be an athlete nor understand the Nigerian sports system but almost everyone understands what it feels like to fight for something, to carry invisible scars or to feel unseen despite giving everything. “So when I see audiences from different countries connect emotionally to the story, it reminds me that powerful storytelling is not really about geographical location, it is about truth.”
With the success of Beyond Olympic Glory, Salami acknowledges that this has changed the way he sees the story now and his connection to the people behind it. “Yes, it has deepened everything. What started as a documentary slowly became something much bigger than film.” He said the success of the film has made him hold the story with even greater care. It feels more sacred now because he understands more deeply the responsibility that came with telling it.
“For me, the awards are beautiful, but the most meaningful thing is knowing that people’s experiences were not ignored. Their struggles were seen, their voices travelled. And somehow, through honesty, their story became bigger than all of us. That has changed me, not just as a filmmaker, but as a person,” Salami asserts.
Building Trust As a Documentary Filmmaker
Documentary filmmaking often requires deep trust from subjects especially with sensitive themes like the ones that Beyond Olympic Glory explores. For Salami, he always tries to earn his character's trust long before the camera ever comes out. This is the moment he knows he wants to tell someone's story. He considers how to approach them, how to listen and how much space he should give them to elicit their deepest truth.
With Beyond Olympic Glory, he knew the story carried so much pain. So he never tried to rush it. He had honest conversations to make sure Ogunsemilore, and everyone involved understood that he wasn't there to exploit their vulnerability but to honor their truth. “There's a difference and people can feel which one you mean. People open up when they genuinely feel safe. Once that's real, the camera just becomes a witness,” Salami posits
In navigating the thin line between being a storyteller and being a witness, Salami said he doesn't separate the two. For him, being a witness means he stays close enough to understand what is happening without interfering with it. On the other hand, being a storyteller means he carries the responsibility to shape that truth so others can feel and understand it. “The balance is knowing when to step back and when to shape meaning in post-production without altering the essence of the story. If it’s done right, the filmmaker disappears and only the truth remains.”
What’s Next, Legacy and Redefining Perception about Documentaries
“The next step is extending its life beyond the festival circuit. We're actively seeking international distribution partners to make it accessible globally, so the story keeps reaching people not just at screenings,” The Beyond Olympic Glory director shares his future plans for the film.
Beyond that, he said there's real interest in using the film in educational and community settings, especially spaces where young people, athletes and decision-makers can sit with the themes and ask hard questions together. “For me, that's the true continuation. When a film stops being a project and becomes a conversation that actually changes something,” Salami rationalizes.
On influencing conversations about documentary filmmaking, especially in Africa through his film, Salami hopes that his work reminds people that documentary filmmaking here isn't just about recording reality; it's about returning dignity to it. He cites how too many African stories have been told from a distance, through an outside lens but he tries to stay close—close enough to honor the complexity of the people he captures without reducing them to symbols or case studies.
“If my work has any influence, I hope it shifts how filmmakers here think about responsibility, not just what we show, but how we show it and who feels safe enough to be seen in the process.” On a personal level, Salami hopes it keeps him grounded and continues to remind him that filmmaking isn't a position above people. It's a shared space of truth and sometimes, of healing.
