Nene (Little Girl)

Abstract

Nene (The Tagalog term for “little girl”) is a genre-bending narrative short film, blending Filipino family dynamics and 1970s horror cinema aesthetics. This film utilizes both contemporary digital imagery and analogue 16mm film stock to “reanimate” a 1970s low-budget Canadian vampire film through the story of Emily, a young neurodivergent Filipino girl, and her struggling single mother Josie. As the 12-minute narrative unfolds, Emily’s hyperactive imagination triggers surreal paranoia, and the celluloid nightmare begins to bleed into reality through a diasporic lens. This film represents my inward exploration of personal themes, including second-generation diaspora, urban childhood upbringing, and folklore as a lens to explore the liminal dimensions of diaspora.