Director
In his affectionate diasporic family narrative, Mackie Mallison immerses the viewer in the intimate memories and imagination of four women in his Japanese-American family. Collage-like CG meshes with oral history, and poetry accents 16mm footage of the local bingo hall and staged sequences in an Asian grocery store, where everyday anxieties of shopping, paying the bills, and flying are ruptured by dreams of financial freedom and homecoming.
Director
Taking its title from the Japanese onomatopoeia for bird sound, this is a lyrical, dream-like portrait of the filmmaker’s grandmother and her deep connection with avian beings.
Director
Through family conversations, home movies, still-lifes, and portraiture, Mackie Mallison’s It Smells Like Springtime explores the complexity of Asian-American identity and experience in dialogue with the artist and jeweler Ada Chen and a riotous cadre of kids. Together, they grapple with their ties to their family’s homelands, the paradoxes of representation, and their sense of belonging.
Director
Two siblings are on a mission to stay up until the morning sun — fearing what will come once the younger brother falls asleep.
Sound Recordist
"A socially anxious college student reluctantly heads to a party attempting to make new friends. Nande Walters directs “Who Are You Really?”, an experimental portrait of insecurity characterized by a raw, youthful energy. Anya walks into the room and immediately feels like everyone is judging her. Eventually she strikes up a conversation with a young man, but neither really knows what to say and it doesn’t go anywhere. After struggling through the awkward night, she’s surprised to learn that an extroverted friend didn’t fare much better. Walters is only 19 years old, one of the youngest we’ve ever featured on NoBudge, and her film is the work of an artist still learning her craft but she clearly knows the feeling she’s after and captures it with pops of style and a touching closing monologue." -Kentucker Audley
Writer
After uncovering an old video camera, a boy longing for his late father makes chilling discovery.
Editor
After uncovering an old video camera, a boy longing for his late father makes chilling discovery.
Sam
After uncovering an old video camera, a boy longing for his late father makes chilling discovery.
Director
After uncovering an old video camera, a boy longing for his late father makes chilling discovery.