Shot on Film
The shift to digital filmmaking that began in the early to mid 2000's led to an explosion of DIY filmmaking that continues to this day. NoBudge has long been an advocate and supporter of this type of affordable, homemade cinema. But as much as one touts the benefits and low barrier to entry to shooting digitally, there's no replacing the texture and timelessness of actual film stock. With that in mind, we thought we'd take a look back at some projects over the last several years that have shot on 8mm, 16mm or 35mm film. SHOT ON FILM. NoBudge Collection #11.
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White and Lazy
Set in 1991, this comedic portrait of a mumbling and indecisive young man trying to collect rent from his eccentric roommates taps into the grand lineage of poor college kids living as weirdo artists in houses with way too many people. It’s tried and true and "White and Lazy" captures it with per...
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Rectangibles
Set in a fictional trailer park community known as Happiness, “Rectangibles” tells the story of two young men who come across a batch of Kodachrome 8mm film and attempt to get it developed before the last lab in America stops developing the format. This offbeat tale directed by Colleen Kwok TungS...
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Rockaway
On Rockaway Beach, a young woman named Teresa borrows money from a teenage skateboarder in return a provocative kiss. She pulls a similar routine with another man working at a deli promising a sexual favor in exchange for keys to the register. These aren’t isolated incidents but a destructive pat...
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Alphabet
A lighthearted take on the Alphabet made in quarantine during the Coronavirus Pandemic. Guy Kozak directs “Alphabet,” which creates an appealing mood and atmosphere from a series of simple compositions, one for each letter, A-Z. There’s a lovely variety of visuals — some words are proper nouns, l...
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En Plein Air
Wandering the dappled grounds of an old farmhouse, Henry plays schoolmaster at an open-air painting retreat, where his instructional duties seem to involve holding forth at candlelit dinners in the garden and sucking down endless cans of Budweiser on the lawn while the work of painting and posing...
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The Letter
A little girl receives a letter from Santa Claus in this short and sweet holiday film from director Eric Paschal Johnson, co-director of “Observatory Blues”. Over a series of richly melancholic 16mm compositions of a young girl lugging a Christmas tree through fields and forests, Santa narrates a...
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Jason Richardson
Matteo reckons with the disappearance of his older brother, Damascus, after his car turns up unexplainably abandoned. A poetic mood piece directed by J.P. Emodi, “Jason Richardson” follows the young man through a quietly tumultuous period as he grapples with memories of his brother and begins to ...
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I Know What I Saw
Charting a cross country journey through rodeos, deserts, and motels, “I Know What I Saw,” is a poetic travelogue of American landscapes and small encounters. Directed by Gillian Waldo, who narrates a series of postcards addressed to someone named “N” — detailing low-key run-ins with cops and par...
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La Roche
A mysterious pile of rocks show up in a Montreal parking lot and a group of young people gravitate to the odd sight. “La Roche,” directed by Emma Cosgrove, is a mixed-media melange of documentary and experimental fiction, a poetic meditation on the natural world and the unique pathways of our liv...
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True Blue
In Atlantic City on a lonely night, two strangers cross paths and share the evening together. A soulful 16mm portrait of two men and their unlikely connection, by director Chris Osborn, “True Blue” draws its characters perhaps as symbols of a faded American dream, but does so with complexity and ...
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Betty Feeds The Animals
Betty loves animals, she loves them so much that every day she puts 30 bowls of food outside of her home to feed them. James P. Gannon directs “Betty Feeds The Animals,” a cozy portrait about an eccentric older lady “caring for something that no ones cares for.” The Super 8mm documentary profile ...
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Jeanette Is The Dog
Two meandering friends ponder their life choices when they meet a corporate buddy for lunch. “Jeanette is the Dog” is an Australian short directed by Pat Mooney — a casual vignette about home ownership and wealth imbalance (and a dog named Jeanette). Standing on a high-rise rooftop making up name...
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Jonny Come Lately
Jonny (Deragh Campbell) watches a toy frog swimming endlessly in a plastic tub. She then drops it in the East River and it mechanically swims away. A Snow Leopard paces back and forth behind a cage, as elegant and graceful as it is pathetically trapped. Sam (Kentucker Audley) sits with a baseball...
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Girlpower
Waking in the home of a one night stand, a woman steals one thing while forgetting another. “Girlpower,” directed by Caydon LiRocchi, is a minimal, richly observed character study about a morning in the life of a young woman in L.A. Slowly we learn fragments about her life. She has an upcoming do...