Nathan Sellers

Digital flyer for SHORT FUSE! - Light the fuse. Spread the word. Free submissions before May 27th Then $10 via FilmFreeway Every film is personally curated and presented as part of the limited online event on July 4th, 2026. The showcase streams for 48 hours on Vimeo and Every accepted filmmaker receives: • A place in the lineup • An official SHORT FUSE laurel • A custom poster • A printed program featuring a personal review of the film Submit films to [email protected]

SOUND ON 🔉 Short Fuse Showcase Promo #1 One week in, Short Fuse has received 300+ film submissions. Absolutely explosive! There’s still TWO MORE WEEKS to submit for FREE. After May 27th, submissions move to FilmFreeway with a $10 fee. Because of the response, our inaugural edition is expanding to SIX SHORT FILM BLOCKS, plus a feature + short pairing. Right now, we’re especially looking for animation, international shorts, and work from women and femme filmmakers but we want it all: horror, experimental work, intimate dramas, midnight movies, handmade visions, and films too personal, strange, or risky to be algorithmically manufactured. Submit by sending a screener link to: [email protected] Every accepted filmmaker receives: • A place in the lineup • An official SHORT FUSE laurel • A custom poster • A printed program featuring a personal review of the film No countless awards. No gimmicks. Just six hours of curated independent cinema. Spread the word, share it around, and let’s light the fuse this Fourth.

SHORT FUSE SHOWCASE: Presented by Lone Horse Films and Nathan Sellers A curated online event showcasing filmmakers I love, films you should know, and a handful of surprises pulled from the underground, the festival circuit, and the edges of genre cinema. July 4th, streaming for 48 hours via Vimeo and the SHORT FUSE site (www.shortfuse.online) As of now 30 films will be selected: 29 Shorts // 1 Feature Submissions are free through May 27th. After May 27th, submissions will move to FilmFreeway with a $10 submission fee. To submit, send your film link to: [email protected] SHORT FUSE is for independent cinema. Horror films, experimental work, intimate dramas, midnight movies, handmade visions, and the kinds of films that feel personal, strange, risky, and impossible to algorithmically manufacture. This isn’t a content farm or a submission mill. Every film is personally curated and presented as part of a limited online event. For the last year, I’ve been building and shaping this thing, the artwork, the format, the wishlist of films, because I wanted to create a space to showcase the incredible work I’ve discovered on the festival circuit, especially short films, while also finding new voices and unexpected surprises. No countless awards. No gimmicks. Just six hours of curated independent cinema. Every accepted filmmaker receives: • A place in the lineup • An official SHORT FUSE laurel • A custom poster • A printed program featuring a personal review of the film Share it up, spread the word, and let’s light the fuse this Fourth! (Yes, I drew myself before I shaved off my mustache haha)

THE WATCHER — 4 YEARS. NOW IN 4K. Link in bio! What a time. What a team. The Watcher is... @americanwatr @unesandrine @luciatarro @grumbling_monks @amanda.bow @charliegirl36 and me :)

This past year felt like a year of growth and, unexpectedly, a year of sowing. I’m not sure which I did more of, but I suppose I’ll find out in time.

We made a film I’m really proud of. The whole process reminded me, again, to slow down, trust the vision, and delight in the skills and personalities of everyone involved. Premiere news coming soon! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the official posters for the upcoming festivals. How the Lonely Keep is… Dir., Writer, Editor: 👋 DP & Producer: @stevennschloss AD: @cliffs.of.insanity87 Grip & Assoc. Producer: @vincentedisanti Executive Producer: @unesandrine Music: @swidlerfiddler Colorist: Wei Ang! Starring… Sara Hallisey (@justenoughsarcasm ) Guy Ventoliere (@ventoliere ) Featuring… Mimi Laquerre (@mimilaq ) Christer Holmquist (@christer0430 ) Laine Sellers (@lainehsellers ) Poster art and design: 👋

After our DP, @stevennschloss , shared a few images from 'How the Lonely Keep' and spoke openly about how Edward Hopper’s paintings informed our lighting and composition, I started getting messages from filmmakers asking what that process actually looks like beyond simply holding up a reference image. With the film coming out in the next few months (and as someone who tends to dodge Q&As), I thought this was a useful way to respond, especially for anyone interested in how these choices play out in practice. 1. Palette before pixels... I came into production with a planned color palette, knowing the emotional temperature I wanted for each location. That meant extensive scouting: photographing spaces, living with them, and understanding how they spoke visually. Some palettes act as bridges between locations (in our case, the church and the farm), while others live entirely on their own color wheel. Like walking through a gallery of paintings by the same artist, I wanted the compositions to feel consistent, while allowing each location to be its own “painting” when it came to color. Lighting flows from that, and collaborators like Steven Schloss and Vinny DiSanti were essential in deciding which spaces needed light to evoke the desired image, and which already had it. The school, for example, lived almost entirely in natural and practical light. 2. Composition as emotional architecture... During scouting, I shot extensively and shared those images with Steven, framing the locations as if we were guiding someone through an exhibition of a person’s life. We leaned into wide, static frames, using angles, most notably triangles, that subtly push the eye toward center frame. Anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with triangles; they’re everywhere in Hopper’s work and honestly, in visual art as a whole. I found that our compositions began to echo the emptiness and quiet isolation found in Hopper’s paintings, while allowing the image to live deep within the frame. We broke the rule when needed, intercutting flatter, shallower frames to disrupt that stillness… (continue to read on post) DP: @stevennschloss Gaffer/Grip: @vincentedisanti

We face the ongoing death of art every day, especially when we try to avoid rejection, indifference, and obscurity. It’s scary. But in the act of making—whether for love of the process or for expression itself—we prove that life, and art, exist beyond approval.

At the end of the day, all I have is my imagination... To explore. To wonder. To escape. To resist. To heal. To fix. To grow. To create. To connect. To remember. To love. To thrive. To begin. To be.

Most days, I just want to lie down on a patch of moss in the woods and sink deep into the ground. Not to escape, or end it—just to rest. The kind that actually restores something in me. Lately, I’ve been noticing how often I exchange, even sacrifice my well-being for art, for work, for reputation. And for what? To be seen? To prove I matter? I’m wanting to get to a place where—whatever I do, I do. Whatever I make, I make. And then I let it be. Might sound a little woo-woo, but I’d rather make five things I genuinely enjoyed in my lifetime (and connect with things outside my own orbit) than keep churning out content just to be seen a certain way or “make it.” This post was supposed to be a photo of moss. Now it’s a whole reflection.

This was meant to be a throwaway. Technically, it’s not the strongest or most interesting shot from our shoot, but maybe that’s why I’ve grown to like it. The imperfections make it feel like a snapshot of where I am right now. So yeah, I’ll leave it at that. Photo by @schlossfilms

It happened. We received a letter from the Owl Post… And I’m beyond stoked to share that METHUSELAH will be screening before the feature A GRAND MOCKERY on July 20th and 23rd at @fantasiafestival ! Huge thanks to @redroomrantings for seeing something in our film and giving it a home in the Underground program this year! It’s hard to put into words what it means to have a film play at Fantasia—so I’ll just say this: I’m incredibly grateful. Screening Info: 📍 J.A. DeSève Cinema July 20th – 9:30 PM July 23rd – 12:00 PM (Noon) Methuselah is… Narration/performance: @dresdenrune Music: @swidlerfiddler Producers: @cliffs.of.insanity87 , @directorh Other stuff: 👋