We interview Ritesh Gupta about directing the indie horror film The Red Mask and its meta commentary on the current state of Hollywood.
Continue reading “Director Ritesh Gupta on the Meta Horror of ‘The Red Mask’”
We’ve been celebrating horror all year as one of the few genres in Hollywood where original storytelling is, not only alive, but thriving significantly. This is honestly thanks to one of the biggest indie studios in the market: Neon. They have had several incredible horror hits in the past few months, from last year’s Longlegs to this week’s Together. To celebrate their strong slate of horror films, they took to the stages of Ballroom 20 at Comic-Con to discuss what’s coming next!
Continue reading “SDCC 2025: Neon Celebrates Horror with First Comic-Con Visit”
I got to chat with Beatrice Grannò about Daniela Forever, the new film from writer-director Nacho Vigalondo, starring Henry Golding. Grannò plays the title character Daniela and also sings on the soundtrack by Hidrogenesse, a Catalan electronic pop group. Audiences may remember Grannò as Mia in White Lotus Season 2. Here’s our interview:
Continue reading “NOC Interview: Beatrice Grannò on ‘Daniela Forever’ and Dream Duets with Henry Golding”
What a lovely film is Daniela Forever, the latest effort from Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo, starring Henry Golding and Beatrice Grannò as the titular character. Vigalondo’s last feature as writer-director was 2016’s Colossal, which found Anne Hathaway clairvoyantly mind-linked to a gigantic city-stomping kaiju monster. Daniela Forever operates from a science-fanciful premise that is slightly less strange, but more gracefully executed:
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘Daniela Forever’ is Henry Golding’s Indie Star Turn”
Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo gave us Anne Hathaway psychically linked to a giant kaiju monster in 2016’s Colossal, and that was good fun. His new film Daniela Forever features a grieving Henry Golding using a science-fictional sleep therapy following the death of his girlfriend Daniela. His lucid dreaming may bring him back into contact with her, or is it a simulation?
Continue reading “Henry Golding Lucid Dreams of Lost Love in ‘Daniela Forever’ Trailer”
Actress and producer Nhi Do has made a significant mark in Hollywood with major roles in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen and the Netflix hit, Maid. Now she’s breaking into the indie scene with a terrific performance in a thrilling short film called The Sorrow.
Continue reading “Actress/Producer Nhi Do on Her Indie Short ‘The Sorrow’”
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 showed that real life had become more like a season of television than ever before. Two years into Joe Biden’s presidency — and in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection — our identity as citizens in this country has become increasingly fragmented from each other. What is best for our communities has fallen to the wayside as it has become harder to find common ground. So when The Hater — written, directed and acted by the multi-talented Joey Ally — finally ended and credits began to roll, I finally realized what had been missing in so many other pieces of media about politics in the world of Fake News and political team sports.
Continue reading “‘The Hater’ Has an Earnest Heart”
Having a falling out with a family member you are close with can be difficult and the same can be said when you fall in love with a person you’ve never met online. Both experiences can leave you with the empty feeling of realizing you don’t really know them as well as you thought. In I Love My Dad, writer-director James Morosini crafts an endearingly funny and real film that displays that feeling honestly and cathartically.
Continue reading “NOC Review: ‘I Love My Dad’ is Endearingly Funny and Real”
Have you been looking for ways to help people in Ukraine? Do you also like playing interesting and unique games from indie developers? Then Necrosoft Games have the perfect bundle for you. The Bundle for Ukraine is a itch.io bundle hosted by Necrosoft Games with content from 732 creators containing over 1,000 games, tabletop RPGs, books, and soundtracks aimed at helping the people in Ukraine through this tumultuous time of Russian forces invading their country: all at the starting price of $10 with the option to give more for the goal of raising $2 million.
Continue reading “‘Bundle for Ukraine’ is a Stellar Deal to Support a Great Cause”
Solar Ash on the surface feels ethereal yet familiar. The premise of trying to stop a world ending event has never looked so beautiful, and in conjunction with smooth controls and a haunting soundtrack, Solar Ash solidifies itself as a serviceable gaming experience on a console that has been in desperate need of unique games since its launch.
Continue reading “‘Solar Ash’ is Introspective and Beautiful”
The trials and tribulations of indie filmmaking are taken to their absurd, action-y, lengths in Marc Price’s Nightshooter, a story about a film crew finding themselves at the scene of a harrowing gang (mob?) execution at an abandoned and soon to be demolished business center on the last night of shooting a zombie film.
Continue reading “‘Nightshooters’ is One of the Best Action Films This Year”
Chaos Magic, 4chan, the 2016 election, and Egyptian gods were not the things I ever thought I would experience all at once but in You Can’t Kill Meme, a documentary film by Haley Garrigus that explores the idea of memes being magic and the magicians who use them. My third eye has been opened and I am looking deeper into the images I find funny and retweet on the internet.
Continue reading “‘You Can’t Kill Meme’ is a Genuine Attempt to Pull the Curtain on Meme Magic”
In the film Black as Night, screenwriter Sherman Payne pens a haunting and alluring tale of vampires and their victims through a lens not much often looked through. Crafting a story that centers Shawna, a 15-year-old African American woman, as she battles vampires in a modern day New Orleans against a backdrop of not only the history of Hurricane Katrina but also the generational and systemic trauma of being Black in America.
Continue reading “The Haunting History of Vampires and Blackness is Captured in ‘Black as Night’”
Super Smack is a Filipino American rapper that has been leveling up in the music game ever since his first ep, Neon Red, hit streaming services. With a unique blend of gaming culture, anime references, good vibes, and a message for change, Super Smack’s pens music that blend pop and rap in ways that make the nerd in any of us step on the dance floor.
Continue reading “Super Smack is Ready to Smash Stereotypes and the Industry with New EP”
Stephen Ddungu recently took social media by storm for the work he showcased from his newest, independently developed JRPG video game called Sword of Symphony. Music is at the heart of Stephen’s personal journey but also the incredible indie project that first had thousands talking on TikTok.
Continue reading “DevTalks: Solo Developer Stephen Ddungu Talks Amazing New ‘Sword of Symphony’”
Waking from a dream never felt so unfinished as it did when I reached the end credits of When I’m A Moth, an independent film directed by Zachary Cotler and Magdalena Zyzak, written by Cotler. It’s a film that on paper has all the markings of being an arthouse darling — a small cast, eerie poetic dream visuals, pontifications on choice and fate with a going nowhere protagonist and yet, as I rose from my seat afterwards, it felt as if I was remembering a half dream. Unable to finish the thought of what it wanted to be but fascinated by the parts I could remember.
Continue reading “‘When I’m A Moth’ is Beautiful but Doesn’t Say Anything”
Two people from across different continents use webcams to build a beautiful friendship rooted in understanding each other, both linguistically and emotionally in Language Lessons. Natalie Morales directs, co-writes, and stars alongside Mark Duplass in a film that is both incredibly simple in production execution and completely captivating through its narrative and strong performances.
Continue reading “‘Language Lessons’ Is A Lesson To Behold”
The Nerds of Color loves us some indie games and our latest DevTalk is with a studio that looks to capture Japanese culture in organic and mesmerizing ways. Path of Kami by Captilight Games Studio is a heartwarming story about family, mortality, and culture. In it, you play as the spirit of a wolf, Kazeyo, who has passed away and sets off on an adventure to navigate trials of the Mortal World.
Continue reading “DevTalks: Deana Galbraith and Barbara Sotolongo of Captilight Games Studio”
Indie game development is a precious process, especially for Fabien Weibel. The animator and game developer took to focusing on his passion project during last year’s pandemic, and after pouring hundreds of ours into the making of it he finally released Haven Park this summer. We had the chance to catch up with Fabien to talk Haven Park and also his approach to creating the Animal Crossing-like game under the conditions of the pandemic.
Continue reading “DevTalks: Fabien Weibel, Indie Game Developer of ‘Haven Park’”
A nightmare-fueled time-traveling plot unravels in Shahin Sean Solimon’s new film, Nebulous Dark, a sci-fi movie about the world’s last human man as he wakes from deep sleep to find the Earth has been conquered by aliens. This sounds pretty straight forward for a plot, but this is only how I could fully understand the film after watching it and reading the synopsis again. If you were to watch Nebulous Dark after only seeing the trailer, as I did, you would find an almost surreal, nihilist nightmare of a film that I can’t tell if it’s poorly edited and poorly written, or if it’s actively trying to attack the viewer on a subconscious level. What I was left with was an art piece that genuinely intrigues me and is unintentionally funny, by a film that takes itself incredibly seriously.
Continue reading “‘Nebulous Dark’ Can’t Time Travel Enough to Be a Strong Movie”
Today Nintendo announced a 20 minute presentation on loads of great indie titles on the Nintendo Switch. The live presentation will take place August 11 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET and The Nerds of Color blog has you covered with live updates here!
Continue reading “Nintendo Indie World Showcase Live Updates!”
As I prepped my Zoom background with a gorgeous wallpaper of She Dreams Elsewhere game art, I hadn’t really anticipated the kind of indie developer I’d be sitting down with. Oftentimes you’ll hear stories of conversations that turned sour because of personalities that couldn’t share the same room but the cameras turned on and Davionne Gooden and I were vibing.
Continue reading “DevTalks: Davionne Gooden is One of the Dopest Indie Developers You’ll Meet”
If this year’s E3 expo showed us anything it’s that indie game developers are built different. Throughout the span of the four day long event, viewers were shown dozens of new titles coming to consoles and PC, and many of those titles came from small studios turning passion projects into marketable content. Between this summer’s E3 and the 2021 Wholesome Direct, gamers saw first-hand the hard work put in by indie game development studios who were also coming off one of the most damaging events to the industry and globe as a whole.
Continue reading “Indie Developers Thrive Despite Post-Pandemic Challenges”