About
Nande Walters is a filmmaker and artist from Fort Lauderdale, FL. She has a Film/Video BFA from Pratt Institute and is based in Brooklyn, NY. She's made narrative and nonfiction student films and is interested in personal documentaries, experimental filmmaking, and researching Black/POC, Womxn, and LGBTQ+ artists and filmmakers.
In 2020, Nande's fiction film Who Are You Really premiered on NoBudge in January, and in February, her documentary Bloodline premiered twice during Pratt's Black History Month art show.
During the pandemic in June 2020, Nande created Kickback, an online creative platform to showcase friends' work. From interviewing dozens of artists, 7 online events, Almanac Zine, Kicback's 1st Birthday Zine, and more, Kickback has brought together artists from across the country.
Nande's goal as a filmmaker and artist is to tell personal stories, invite others to do the same, and bring people together to celebrate the work they've made.
Artist Statement
I’ve been a filmmaker and have been an artist since childhood. I find joy in experimenting with video and 2D art; playing with and intertwining mediums. My recent films are experimental, documentaries, and hybrids of reenacted reality. Creating has always been therapeutic for me, as well as stressful, but something I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.
I’ve always been shy, introverted, and behind the camera. In high school, I loved being the friend that filmed memories, no one noticing I had my camera out. I recorded tons of “vlogs” of my friends to practice video editing. I hope to look back on them 20 years from now like how I look through my parents' photo albums from when they were young.
When I began at Pratt, needing to film myself for assignments was very scary at first. But it was an opportunity to hold up a mirror and use light and color to make me like what I saw. I use film and writing to cope, using characters as puppets and editing the world to look like it does in my head. Surreal, mundane, hyper-focused, and distracted. I’m interested in recording myself, the world around me, and my thoughts as a way of artistic expression and for an archive.
I’m inspired by filmmakers Issa Rae, Donald Glover, Barry Jenkins, Terrance Nance, Cheryl Dunye Marlon Riggs, Wong Kar-wai, Bong Joon-ho. As well as artists Adrian Piper, Carrie Mae Weems, Renee Cox, Titus Kaphar, and Hank Willis Thomas.
As an art student, I love learning about contemporary artists and art history. I love researching and essay writing, connecting art and media to race, gender, sexuality, and class. It’s important for me as a black woman to make films about people that look like me. It’s also important to understand the history of oppression in the art and film worlds, and to follow the trail of self-representation.