Clementine Narcisse
Clementine Narcisse
Clementine Narcisse, a senior at NYC’s School of Visual Arts, winces when she realizes that I recognize her from one of her recent TikToks. “I forget that when you put stuff on the internet it can go viral,” she laughs about the video, which pokes fun at nonmonogamy. “Hopefully, I’ll be known for my films and not my dumbass TikToks.”
The 21-year-old can rest assured that her current output—completed as requirements for her SVA degree—distinguish her as a rising talent most “content creators” couldn’t dream of aspiring to. Her passion, vision and voice are discernable, remarkable for someone who helmed their first short at 18. “I am deeply in love with the process, though it almost kills me every time,” Narcisse muses over a Zoom call, her bedroom wall plastered in vibrant images of femme models, musicians and actors.
Originally from Montclair, New Jersey, she spent much of her teenage years commuting 40 minutes into Manhattan to catch arthouse fare at independent cinemas. “Seeing Get Out was big,” she says. “I was in eighth grade, but I could sense that it was a huge cultural moment.” When applying to college in 2020, pandemic-fueled “self-reflection” spurred Narcisse to take a gamble on film school.
As We Hold Hands, a tender, seven-minute short chronicling two women’s budding romance, marked Narcisse’s first effort “writing a script to completion.” Though she made it for a freshman year final project, she recalls that “it didn’t feel like homework” because it reflected her experience. “I’d just moved to New York, was walking around and thinking about loving girls,” she smiles. Queer festival NewFest immediately took note, programming the short in 2022. “That was the very first film festival that I submitted to, and they liked it,” says Narcisse. “I was shocked!”
Her sophomore year-end assignment, Girl Blunt, was also selected for NewFest. Markedly more assertive—in its brashly comedic tone, meticulously curated Y2K set design and pink-hued color grade—it follows two Black, femme weed dealers who lace some of their supply to enact revenge against a so-called conniving man. “Black 2000s culture really inspired Girl Blunt,” she notes. “Even though I was born in ’03, I grew up watching MTV and VH1 and loving Black pop stars.” Narcisse received the NewFest Film Festival Emerging Black LGBTQ+ Filmmaker Award for the effort, which also subverts the oft-“masculine” aesthetics of stoner culture.
In July, she was announced as a recipient of the NewFest New Voices Filmmaker Grant, which provides $25,000 in partnership with Netflix. (“I was gagged!”) It will help fund two SVA thesis projects: Narcisse’s own and one that she’s producing and co-directing with classmate Veronica Barboza. The former, entitled Kill the DJ, is about “a Black, trans DJ who gets booked in a witchy nightclub” and is influenced by what Narcisse refers to as her DJing side quest. She aims to shoot the 17-page script in November. She describes the latter, Lore of Lavender, as “The Craft meets Heathers meets Bodies Bodies Bodies”; it begins production imminently in upstate New York.
Released just a few weeks ago, Narcisse’s latest, Blue Moon Angels, solidifies her intention to move into the horror realm, cheekily depicting Satanic lesbian schoolgirls who clutch vapes in one hand and hammers in another. Soaked in deep blues and reds, the aura of spooky suburbia has inspired Narcisse to cement herself in genre, at least for now. “I can’t believe it took me this long to make a horror movie,” she admits after describing her childhood love of Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead. “When I started transitioning at 15, I always wanted to see a Black, trans final girl.”
Despite the intensity of SVA’s “thesis year,” Narcisse has plenty she’s building toward outside of receiving her B.A. Post-grad, she hopes to focus on a feature-length horror project. (“It needs to have a lot of intention; you only make one first feature.”) She also wants to direct music videos, a medium she describes as her “first love.” As far as filmic intentions go, it’s clear that Narcisse’s focus on the feminine will prevail. “I love writing about women, I love women’s stories, I love working with women,” she gushes. “I just want to be busy working and being part of this community.”— Natalia Keogan/Image: Trinity Bell
