INFINITE BEGINNINGS (Director of Photography)
Video portraits | Runtime 3:20’ | 2022
Infinite Beginnings is four portraits centered on the theme of protection and transformation, exploring the ways in which decorative objects can act as armor — balancing softness and strength in as we move through our everyday. Inspired by Chinese creation mythologies, Infinite Beginnings is grounded in the idea of repetition and ritual in one’s journey of finding their own power and strength.
Creative Directors: Mei Lum, Vivian Sangsukwirasathien
Director of Photography: Nathaniel Brown
Stylist: Melody Huang
Performer: Eddy Kwon
Assistant Camera: Jane Yang
Production Design: Vivian Sangsukwirasathien
Art Production Assistant: Mischelle Moy
Sound Design: Kyle Kaplan
Featuring words by K-Ming Chan & art by Heidi Lau
A commission for Wing on Wo & Co
LELEB (Director of Photography & Co-Director)
Short Film | Runtime 3:20’ | 2022
Watch on Nowness
Leleb, (sinking or drowning in Javanese) is a project about the futility and visceral grief of clinging to a home that will inevitably disappear. In central Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, human manipulation of the environment has caused coastal villages to begin to sink into the sea. Although the area has become increasingly unlivable, most residents still remain, clinging to the final vestiges of what is left of their communities. We seek to pay tribute to those who endure. Working alongside Javanese dancer Siko Setyanto and soundtracked by the experimental Javanese band Senyawa, Leleb seeks to be an intimate portrait of resilience and a reminder of the difficult and sometimes painful relationship between humanity and the space it occupies.
A film by Marc Ressang & Nathaniel Brown
Cinematography: Nathaniel Brown
Producer Marc Ressang
Performer: Siko Setyanto
Music: Senyawa(Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi)
CITY OF HANDS (Director/DP/Producer)
Documentary Short | Runtime 21’ | 2016
Slowly forgotten after being home to the emperor’s imperial kilns for a thousand years, Jingdezhen is now filling with young artists. An oasis for creatives in China’s urban east, people from all over the country come to Jingdezhen to follow porcelain dreams. CITY OF HANDS is a look into the lives of four young residents of Jingdezhen.
Winner of Best Documentary Short Film at North Bay Art & Film Festival, with Screenings at Cleveland International Film Festival (2016), Festival de Cannes Court Métrage (2016), the Embassy of the United States in China (2017), and Wing on Wo & Co, NYC (2016), CITY OF HANDS is a profile of the lives and dreams of young artists in Jingdezhen, China’s porcelain capital.
Trailer
Director & DP & Producer : Nathaniel J. Brown
Editor: AJ Sinker
Writing: Nathaniel J. Brown & Aj Sinker
Music: Kyle Kaplan
PORTRAITS OF SOUND (AD)
Experimental Short | Runtime 9’ | 2019
A contemplation of mortality and re-birth and a meditation on our coexistence with nature, PORTRAITS OF SOUND is seven portraits of Shanghai-based musicians weaved togethed, each film as a single take accompanied by the musicians’ own music.
On Nowness
Musicians: Chacha, Guan, Zean, Alex Wang, Empress CC!, Mirrors, Dream Can
Direct: DJ Furth
Cinematography: Gianpaolo Lupori
Produce: Xixi Nie
Art Direct: Sakura Fischer
AD: Nathaniel Brown
HMU: Pipi / 皮皮
Stylist: Ying Xiaolei
Gear: Hu Jie / 胡杰, Victor Ivanov & Kristian Hansen
1st AC / Focus Puller: Andre Wan
Gaffer: Hu Jie / 胡杰, Jin Dong
Head on table: Emily Chee
People on the ground: Francesca Urijoe and Davide Rossi
Mahålang (Cinematographer & Co-Director, Stedicam op)
Documentary Short | Runtime 16’ | 2021
Choreographer Caili Quan pays tribute to the family and culture on Guam that sparked her love of music and inspired her dream of dancing. Weaving a narrative of how collective memory and storytelling preserve where we come from, this film is an ode to a home and the longing to return.
Commissioned by Ballet X for Ballet X Beyond
In the New York Times
Choreography: Caili Quan
Cinematography & Directing: Nathaniel Brown & Elliot deBruyn
Edit: Elliot deBruyn
Dancers:Francesca Forcella, Zachary Kapeluck, Blake Krapels, Savannah Green, Andrea Yorita, Ashley Simpson, Richard Villaverde, Stanley Glover, Roderick Phifer
Festivals:
Dance on Camera 2022
AAIFF 2022: Winner Best Documentary
CAAM Fest
LA Asian Pacific Film Festival
San Diego Asian Film Festival
Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival
Portland Dance film Festival
NOWNESS Body language: Guang Chang Wu (Director of Photography, Stedicam Op)
Documentary short | Runtime 4’ | 2021
On NOWNESS
Documenting the essence and emotion behind Chinese diaspora dance groups in New York City.
“Over 100 million people gather daily in China to dance and socialize in public parks, neighborhood squares, and even underneath freeway overpasses. The dance styles can vary from Guang Chang Wu, a form of Chinese square dance, to Yangge, a popular folk dance. Although this energetic pastime activity is open to anyone, public dancing is particularly enjoyed by middle-aged and retired women.
Director Jean Liu captured Team Zhi Qing, one of New York City’s Guang Chang Wu groups, to create this celebratory profile piece. The Team’s sound bites, layered across images of gathered skirts, bamboo fans, and colorful handkerchiefs, reflect on the joy and sorority that dancing brings to them.
Commissioned by Nowness & Jacob’s Pillow”
Director: Jean Liu
Director of Photography: Nathaniel J. Brown
Producer: Yan
1st AC: Elo Santa Maria
Styling: Melody Huang
Big Fight in Little Chinatown (Cinematographer)
Documentary Feature | Runtime 88’ | 2022
Trailer
All across the globe, Chinatowns are under threat of disappearing – and along with them, the rich history of communities who fought from the margins for a place to belong. Big Fight in Little Chinatown is a story of community resistance and resilience. Set against the backdrop of the COVID pandemic and an unprecedented rise in anti-Asian racism, the documentary takes us into the lives of residents, businesses and community organizers whose neighborhoods are facing active erasure.
Big Fight in Little Chinatown documents the collective fight to save Chinatowns across North America.
Production Company: Eyesteelfilm
Director: Karen Cho
Executive Producer: Mila Aung-Thwin, Daniel Cross
Producer: Bob Moore
Cinematographers: Nathaniel Brown, Joshua Frank
Editor: Ryan Mullins
Festivals:
DOC NYC 2022 Premiere
Reel Asian 2022 : Honorable Mention, Best Canadian Feature
RIDM 2022 Winner, People’s Choice Award, Winner Women Inmate Jury Award (Dir. Karen Cho)
Big Sky Doumentary Film Festival 2022
Trailer
All across the globe, Chinatowns are under threat of disappearing – and along with them, the rich history of communities who fought from the margins for a place to belong. Big Fight in Little Chinatown is a story of community resistance and resilience. Set against the backdrop of the COVID pandemic and an unprecedented rise in anti-Asian racism, the documentary takes us into the lives of residents, businesses and community organizers whose neighborhoods are facing active erasure.
Big Fight in Little Chinatown documents the collective fight to save Chinatowns across North America.
Production Company: Eyesteelfilm
Director: Karen Cho
Executive Producer: Mila Aung-Thwin, Daniel Cross
Producer: Bob Moore
Cinematographers: Nathaniel Brown, Joshua Frank
Editor: Ryan Mullins
Festivals:
DOC NYC 2022 Premiere
Reel Asian 2022 : Honorable Mention, Best Canadian Feature
RIDM 2022 Winner, People’s Choice Award, Winner Women Inmate Jury Award (Dir. Karen Cho)
Big Sky Doumentary Film Festival 2022
CHINA STATE OF THE ART: CHEN NONG (Camera, stills)
Documentary Short | Runtime 3’ | 2020
A profile of ex-factory worker turned large format photographer Chen Nong, in his Ming Dynasty studio in Beijing.
Director: DJ Furth
Cinematography: Nathaniel Brown & DJ Furth
Art Director: Sakura Fisher
Produce: Moolah Creative
TahNibaa Naataanii (Director of Photography)
Documentary short | Runtime 5’58” | 2022
TahNibaa Naataanii, is a Diné master weaver living on Navajo Land outside Table Mesa. Dedicated artist and fierce advocate for traditional Navajo or Diné weaving, TahNibaa is working to expand ideas about weaving and deepen traditions. For TahNibaa Naataanii, and the Diné (Navajo) people, weaving is more than an artistic practice, it is a way of life that teaches and reinforces the connectivity to ancestral and spiritual philosophies of self, land, and community. Naataanii honors and maintains the ancestral weaving protocols and lessons that were passed on to her from her mother, her maternal grandmother, and all the grandmothers before her. Thus, she practices traditional Diné weaving methods by harvesting wool from sheep on her own land in the high desert, dying her materials using plants found in the Navajo Nation, and participating in weaving ceremonies and prayers to bless the nature of her work.
In addition to her own vision and artistry, TahNibaa Naataanii is recognized as a gifted and prolific mentor and teacher of holistic Diné weaving practice – from farming sheep to harvesting and dyeing wool, and through the complex techniques of developing and weaving textiles on a loom. She is also a celebrated interpreter of Diné weaving traditions, working with museums and cultural centers to tell the story and process of this remarkable art.
This piece profiles her practice.
Text draws from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and the NEA
Director: Olivia Merrion
Producer: Debra A. Wilson
Directors of Photography: Nathaniel Brown & Elliot DeBruyn
Editor: Lorena Alvarado
Client: National Endowment for the Arts for the 2022 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship Awards
TahNibaa Naataanii, is a Diné master weaver living on Navajo Land outside Table Mesa. Dedicated artist and fierce advocate for traditional Navajo or Diné weaving, TahNibaa is working to expand ideas about weaving and deepen traditions. For TahNibaa Naataanii, and the Diné (Navajo) people, weaving is more than an artistic practice, it is a way of life that teaches and reinforces the connectivity to ancestral and spiritual philosophies of self, land, and community. Naataanii honors and maintains the ancestral weaving protocols and lessons that were passed on to her from her mother, her maternal grandmother, and all the grandmothers before her. Thus, she practices traditional Diné weaving methods by harvesting wool from sheep on her own land in the high desert, dying her materials using plants found in the Navajo Nation, and participating in weaving ceremonies and prayers to bless the nature of her work.
In addition to her own vision and artistry, TahNibaa Naataanii is recognized as a gifted and prolific mentor and teacher of holistic Diné weaving practice – from farming sheep to harvesting and dyeing wool, and through the complex techniques of developing and weaving textiles on a loom. She is also a celebrated interpreter of Diné weaving traditions, working with museums and cultural centers to tell the story and process of this remarkable art.
This piece profiles her practice.
Text draws from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation and the NEA
Director: Olivia Merrion
Producer: Debra A. Wilson
Directors of Photography: Nathaniel Brown & Elliot DeBruyn
Editor: Lorena Alvarado
Client: National Endowment for the Arts for the 2022 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship Awards