Nunet Clitandre: Inside the Mind of a Filmmaker Who Finds Order in Chaos

Finding Beauty in the Beautifully Unconventional

There is something liberating about an artist who has no interest in making the unfamiliar feel comfortable. For Queens-born multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Nunet Clitandre, experimentation is not simply an aesthetic choice—it is a way of thinking, questioning, and making sense of the world.

Her films move through collage, absurdity, cultural criticism, political tension, humor, and chaos, often blurring the boundaries between what is planned and what happens by accident. The result is a cinematic language that feels entirely her own: unconventional, provocative, energetic, and unapologetically strange.

Raised within a multigenerational family of musicians, authors, painters, and journalists, creativity was never a distant concept for Clitandre. It was part of the atmosphere around her. She began performing at an early age and later studied theater at Gramercy Arts High School before taking an unconventional path through marine geology, journalism, and eventually filmmaking. After writing for HipHopDX, she earned her bachelor's degree in Screen Studies from The New School, where an unexpected global shutdown would ultimately help shape the artistic direction of her career.

A Filmmaker Born From Limitation

In 2020, as the world entered the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, Clitandre found herself approaching one of the most important moments of her education: her major production project.

Traditional filmmaking suddenly became difficult, if not impossible. But rather than allowing those limitations to silence her creative voice, she adapted.

During that period, Clitandre began working on her thesis film, These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends, an experimental found-footage work that uses archival imagery to meditate on punk culture and the political climate of the United States.

What began as an experiment, and, in many ways, an artistic act of rebellion, became the foundation of her practice.

The restrictions of the pandemic pushed Clitandre toward a filmmaking language rooted in collage and experimentation. Instead of relying on conventional narrative structures, she began constructing meaning through the collision of images, ideas, history, media, and cultural memory.

That visual language has remained with her ever since.

There Is a Method to the Madness

Clitandre's work embraces unpredictability.

As a director, she is drawn to the moments that cannot be perfectly planned: an unexpected performance, a technical mistake, an accident on set, or the sudden realization that the original idea needs to be abandoned entirely.

Rather than seeing these moments as interruptions, she sees them as opportunities.

Her films may appear chaotic at first glance, but beneath that chaos is a carefully considered structure. She approaches filmmaking like collage, allowing seemingly disconnected images and ideas to reveal deeper relationships when placed together.

Politics, history, media, ideology, memory, and systems of power frequently weave their way into her work. Clitandre is interested in the invisible forces that shape everyday life, and in finding experimental ways to make those forces visible.

his approach can be seen in projects such as Dope Fien Lean, as well as in her growing body of politically charged and culturally critical work.

Her most notable film to date, These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends, captures that energy particularly well. The film explores anger, frustration, social injustice, and the limits of politeness, creating what Clitandre describes as a kind of productive chaos.

It is cinema that does not ask the audience to remain passive.

Cinema Without Permission

The creative freedom in Clitandre's work has been shaped by artists who have proven that moving images do not need to follow a conventional formula to be meaningful.

Filmmaker Terence Nance has been a particularly significant influence. Seeing Random Acts of Flyness expanded Clitandre's understanding of what television and cinema could be. The work demonstrated that film could be poetic, political, humorous, deeply personal, and chaotic, all at once.

Darren Aronofsky has also influenced her approach, particularly through his exploration of psychological intensity and the raw contradictions of New York City.

But beyond individual filmmakers, Clitandre finds inspiration in experimental film communities themselves.

Her connection to Millennium Film Workshop has become an important part of that journey. Within a space that celebrates artistic risk and unconventional perspectives, she has found an environment where experimentation is not something to apologize for.

It is something to embrace.

From Political Satire to Experimental Cinema

While Clitandre's work often confronts serious subjects, humor remains an essential part of her artistic vocabulary.

Her tongue-in-cheek patriotic satire, Artistic Compliance Declaration: Form 1776-C, marked her first time acting in more than a decade. The project gave her the opportunity to write and perform her own material while reconnecting with her love for comedy.

Growing up with political satire through programs like The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live, Clitandre developed an appreciation for humor's ability to challenge serious ideas.

In her hands, absurdity becomes more than entertainment. It becomes a tool.

Her work demonstrates that political and cultural criticism does not always have to arrive in a solemn package. Sometimes, the strangest idea in the room is the one that makes people think the longest.

Finding the Right Room

Over the past several years, Clitandre has become increasingly active within New York's independent film community, participating in festivals both as a filmmaker and a volunteer.

Her experiences with the Lower East Side Film Festival, SoHo International Film Festival, and Bushwick Film Festival have strengthened her connection to the city's independent creative landscape.

One of her most meaningful recent experiences came when These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends was screened with Non-Films, an experimental film collective, during a special presentation at Ryan Boch's Young Americans gallery as part of the Satellite Art Show.

For Clitandre, the experience felt significant.

The film was presented alongside politically engaged artwork in an environment that felt naturally aligned with the spirit of the piece. It was not simply a screening, it was a moment of artistic placement, where the work seemed to find the world it had been searching for.

Sometimes an artwork does not just need an audience.

It needs the right room.

A Conversation Between Filmmaker and Journalist

Clitandre's creative journey has never existed within one discipline alone.

Before fully immersing herself in filmmaking, she developed professional experience as a journalist. That background recently came full circle through her work moderating for the Bushwick Film Festival, where she combined her knowledge of cinema with her skills as an interviewer.

Speaking with filmmakers including Lilian T. Mehrel and Cinqué Lee became one of the most rewarding experiences of her career.

It was another example of the multidisciplinary nature of her practice: filmmaking, journalism, performance, comedy, and cultural criticism all intersecting rather than competing.

For Clitandre, the different paths have not been detours.

They have been part of the same creative map.

Keeping It Weird

The next chapter for Nunet Clitandre promises even more experimentation. From a bold new collaboration with music video director Captain Z to upcoming projects filled with cinematic chaos, she continues to embrace the unconventional.

But beyond the surreal imagery, humor, and madness, Clitandre's goal remains clear: to create films that challenge audiences, spark curiosity, and linger long after the screen goes dark.

Nunet Clitandre isn't trying to fit into a category.

She's creating one of her own.

Follow Nunet Clitandre

To explore more of Nunet Clitandre's work, audiences can visit her YouTube channel, Nunet Clitandre, or experience the experimental film community at Millennium Film Workshop in Brooklyn.

Follow her journey on Instagram:

Personal: @nunniecorn

Film Production: @lasirenefilm