Today we’d like to introduce you to Nande Walters.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Nande. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve been an artist since I was a child and I’ve always known I wanted to be an artist as an adult. Though I grew up drawing and painting and took every art class at my high school, I wanted to create something different. In middle school, I fell in love with young adult novels like the Hunger Games and Harry Potter. I wanted to write a series of YA novels like JK Rowling and have them turned into movies. My wild aspirations were difficult to put on paper, but I found them easy to visualize. I could picture the sets, blocking, lighting, camera angles. I realized that it was movies that I wanted to make, not books. Ever since I decided I wanted to go to film school, I kept a camera on me at all times. I’d record my friends and I hanging out vacations with my family, and anything random I found of interest. I taught myself how to edit using Adobe Premiere Pro, and I watched a lot of YouTube videos about film making. I learned about many pieces of equipment I couldn’t afford, but I did what I could with the digital point and shoot camera I saved up for months. I was also one of the lead artists in my high school’s drama club, so being backstage is very similar to a film set. I’ve been surrounded by art and creative people my whole life and years of making art and videos for fun and for school definitely prepared me for art school.
Film school, and college, in general, is costly and definitely not for everyone. But I’m halfway through my second semester at Pratt Institute and I love it, it’s like a dream come true. Everyone I meet is passionate about creating things and New York is such an inspiring city to live in. It’s very different from South Florida, which is all I’ve ever known. It’ll be interesting to see how these two places effect me and show up in the work I’ll make in the future.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Life is never ever easy and being a young person in America is especially hard right now. I feel like I’m stuck in between the Millennial Generation and Gen Y like I’m a child and adult at the same time. During Trump’s election and the Stoneman Douglass shooting, I wasn’t old enough to vote and felt really powerless. There are so many awful things happening that are out of my control like gun reform, access to healthcare as a woman, affordable secondary education, police brutality, climate change, all of it. Political activism is important to me, but I’m more vocal about it in the stories I tell and the films I want to make.
I’m also a black woman, so I’ve grown up knowing that things will always be harder for me. There are a lot of black filmmakers that have become really popular in the past few years which is inspiring. Spike Lee finally won an Oscar which was long overdue. Ava Duvernay, Ryan Coogler, Jordan Peele, Donald Glover, Issa Rae have been recognized for their work, and I love seeing people that look like me not only in front of the camera but behind it. Barry Jenkins is from Miami and went to FSU’s film school, and now, he’s winning Oscars. That’s what I want for myself, not fame, but the ability to impact others because the people I listed have definitely impacted me.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I’m a filmmaker who’s mostly making films for school right now. I’m learning about fiction, documentary, and experimental modes while trying to figure out my own style. I’m almost done with my first year of college, and I know I want to make films, that hasn’t changed, but I’m unsure of what I want to do specifically. I’ve always filmed my friends which have led me to make documentaries about my friends, which I love. But I want to bridge non-fiction and fiction and I’m enjoying writing stories based on experiences and conversations I’ve had with people. For my final film for one of my classes, I’m basing it off of a party I went to and conversations I had during and after. The film’s about social anxieties, how others see us, and what we mean to other people (friends, acquaintances, strangers). That’s what I’m working on right now, and it’s a special concept to me that allows me to be fictional, realistic, and experimental at the same time.
I’ve been writing really ambitious stories since 8th/9th grade, but they take place in space or have crazy special effects and costumes. Those are the kinds of movies and tv shows I dream of making in the future with a big studio or network. But, for now, I’m making down to earth short films but it used to be hard to simplify my crazy ideas. I love what I’ve made so far and I can’t wait to make more films while I’m at Pratt.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I personally think I’ll be successful when I can afford to live in New York without roommates. I think you can be successful without money, but money’s what we all need to live. If I can get paid for doing what I love every day, that’d be amazing, that’s my main goal. I’ve always tried to make checklists of things I want to accomplish 1, 2, 3 years from now, but there’s no way I can plan every step of my future. My dream has always been to make movies that move people, win awards, and talk to Jimmy Fallon one day, which is a very far out dream. But I honestly think that if I can finish writing what I’ve been writing since I was 13 years old, make a feature film one day, and maybe create a filmmaking collective or production group, that would also be a dream come true. There’s a rooted fear in me of never getting a job and being homeless, but I’ve already worked so hard and accomplished things I didn’t think I would, like getting into one of the top art schools in New York. I’m only 18 years old and there are a lot of things that could happen in the next 50 years of my life. Whatever happens in the next few years, I hope to be passionate and proud of what I make, that’s what’s most important to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: nandewalters.com
- Email: nandewalters@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nandewalters/?hl=en
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVprxLNwwgynrrW4wWZDIDw
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