Terence Nance

Terence Nance (born February 10, 1982; Dallas, Texas) is an American filmmaker, writer, director, actor and musician. He is best known for his directing debut "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty" (2012), and as the creator of the avant-garde TV program "Random Acts of Flyness" (2018), which is produced by his production company MVMT and airs on HBO. Nance is in a relationship with Naima Ramos-Chapman. The two met while they interviewed him for Saint Heron, the creative agency owned by Solange Knowles. Nance was born in Dallas, Texas. He earned his MFA from New York University where he studied visual art. Nance's 2012 film "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty" incorporates an earlier short film, animation and an original score. It premiered in the Sundance Film Festival's New Frontier section in 2012 and was also screened as part of the 2012 New Directors/New Films Festival in New York. Scholar Terri Francis has described it as "...an experimental film...that recreates the unspoken space amid friendship and relationships". Starring Terence Nance himself and the girl with whom he is caught up in this difficult dance, the film shifts between reconstruction and reimagining using both animation and live action. The film was also featured at a screening as part of the Afrofuturist Film Festival at the New School on 3 May 2015. In August 2018, Nance's TV series "Random Acts of Flyness" debuted on HBO. In September 2018, Nance was announced as the director of the sequel of Space Jam, produced by Ryan Coogler. On July 16, 2019, it was announced that Nance left the project because he and "the studio/producers had different takes on the creative vision for Space Jam: A New Legacy", though he retained both screenwriting and executive producing credits. Nance also composes and performs music under the alias "Terence Etc.", composing some of the music for his "Random Acts of Flyness" series and releasing his debut EP "Things I Never Had" in January 2020. His debut full-length album "V O R T E X" was released on August 19, 2022 under the Brainfeeder label.

Works

New Blue Sun (Listening)

"I swear, I wanted to make a “visual album” but this is literally the way the wind blew me this time."

Release Date: 2023-11-16

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

The Young Wife

On her wedding day, all that stands between a young woman and marital bliss with her soon-to-be husband is surviving the chaos and expectations of family and friends, each intensifying her spiraling panic.

Release Date: 2023-03-12

Department: Sound

Job: Music

Vote Count: 4

Master

At an elite New England university built on the site of a Salem-era gallows hill, two black women strive to find their place. Navigating politics and privilege, they encounter increasingly terrifying manifestations of the school's haunted past… and present.

Release Date: 2022-03-18

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 121

Out / Side of Time

This new work was made especially for the room by Jenn Nkiru, a British-born filmmaker of Nigerian descent. Her videos celebrate the vibrant creativity and speculative vision of the African diaspora while exploring what she calls, "cosmic archaeology," a potentially mystical connection to history through visual memory.

Release Date: 2021-11-05

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Space Jam: A New Legacy

When LeBron and his young son Dom are trapped in a digital space by a rogue A.I., LeBron must get them home safe by leading Bugs, Lola Bunny and the whole gang of notoriously undisciplined Looney Tunes to victory over the A.I.'s digitized champions on the court. It's Tunes versus Goons in the highest-stakes challenge of his life.

Release Date: 2021-07-08

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 4044

Judas and the Black Messiah

Bill O'Neal infiltrates the Black Panthers on the orders of FBI Agent Mitchell and J. Edgar Hoover. As Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton ascends—falling for a fellow revolutionary en route—a battle wages for O’Neal’s soul.

Release Date: 2021-02-12

Department: Art

Job: Main Title Designer

Vote Count: 1548

Killing in Thy Name

A teacher gives a brief history lesson on the concept of whitness to students. This is intercut with Rage Against the Machines Killing in The Name of as well as quotes relating to the discussion. It goes onto critique racism and the overall structure of wealth and power in America and the history that generated it.

Release Date: 2021-01-15

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 1

18 Black Girls and Boys Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and are thus Spiritual Machines: $9 in an Edition of $97 Quadrillion

Release Date: 2020-07-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

18 Black Girls Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and are thus Spiritual Machines: $8 in an Edition of $97 Quadrillion

Release Date: 2020-06-29

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia

Chronicling the life of Lay'n Pipe, a 47 foot TopGun Cigarette speedboat, from its conception through the end of human civilization. It's not just a speedboat ride, it's a Miami adventure.

Release Date: 2020-01-26

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 4

18 Black Boys Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and Are Thus Spiritual Machines: $7 in an Edition of $97 Quadrillion

Edited record of performance conducted at SFFilm; posted on Vimeo.

Release Date: 2019-09-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Steve

If grinding in the bustling streets of NYC isn't enough for a Broadway actress, an uninvited guest in her apartment might be just the thing to put her over the edge.

Release Date: 2019-09-01

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Guisado on Sunset

Missed connection regret at that one late-night spot—the kind you keep playing back in your head but not quite ever remembering right, until it starts to look like something else.

Release Date: 2019-08-04

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

Character:

Pier Kids: The Life

The lives of three LGBTQ homeless youths who congregate on Christopher St. in New York City.

Release Date: 2019-07-21

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Vote Count: 1

When I Get Home

In the three years since her seminal album "A Seat at the Table", Solange has broadened her artistic reach, expanding her work to museum installations, unconventional live performances, and striking videos. With her fourth album, "When I Get Home", the singer continues to push her vision forward with an exploration of roots and their lifelong influence. In Solange's case, that's the culturally rich Houston of her childhood. Some will know these references - candy paint, the late legend DJ Screw - via the city's mid-aughts hip-hop explosion, but through Solange's lens, these same touchstones are elevated to high art.

Release Date: 2019-07-17

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 3

Nowhere, Nobody

Release Date: 2019-01-29

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Selah and the Spades

Paloma, the new girl at an esteemed prep school, is drawn into the daily aggressions of warring senior class factions. She joins the Spades and becomes friends with the Spades’ leader, an enigmatic and scheming cheerleader named Selah.

Release Date: 2019-01-27

Department: Sound

Job: Songs

Vote Count: 51

As Told To G/D Thyself

The cosmic journey of sacred youth, during which pain, pleasure, and sublimation are nonnegotiable.

Release Date: 2019-01-26

Department: Writing

Job: Story

Piu Piu

A restless young woman yearns to escape the confines of romance in order to find her superpower.

Release Date: 2018-11-13

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Character:

The Burial of Kojo

A man is trapped in a mine shaft by his vengeful brother while his daughter embarks on a magical journey to rescue him.

Release Date: 2018-11-02

Department: Production

Job: Associate Producer

Vote Count: 22

Afroprojection #1: The Sweet Atmosphere Phased at 120° and Went Blank When the Universe Collapsed

Afroprojection #1: The Atmosphere Phased at 120° and Went Blank When The Universe Collapsed, a proposal on parallel dimensions and black psychiatry... ‘live’ from the Merciful Allah Black Hole Theatre

Release Date: 2018-10-26

Vote Count: 2

Madeline's Madeline

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.

Release Date: 2018-08-10

Department: Crew

Job: Thanks

Vote Count: 88

Random Acts of Flyness

Late-night series featuring a mix of vérité documentary, musical performances, surrealist melodrama and humorous animation as a stream-of-consciousness response to the contemporary American mediascape.

Release Date: 2018-08-04

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Character: Terence

Episode Count: 12

Vote Count: 8

White People Won't Save You

Welcome to WHITEPEOPLEWONTSAVEYOU.ORG. We provide specialized consulting services for feature film and television productions.

Release Date: 2018-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

18 Black Boys Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and Are Thus Spiritual Machines: $6 in an Edition of $97 Quadrillion

The above is a performance during which I google the phrase "1 year old black boy" ascending in age to the age of 18. I allow Google's "popular searches" algorithm to predict what comes after the phrase and peruse the results based on what Google thinks I want to search for in a Black boy. The algorithm generates results based on the most popular searches so it can be theorized that the Black boys that the algorithm predicts are the Black boys we are searching for.

Release Date: 2017-08-23

Department: Directing

Job: Director

The Paris Project

A Brooklyn based artist moves to Paris to get married and start a new life. As an old life of crime catches up to him, he enters the depths of Paris' underground art and spiritual drug scenes to settle a score.

Release Date: 2017-08-09

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

Character:

Lost & Found

Release Date: 2017-04-20

Episode Count: 1

Stumped

When filmmaker Will Lautzenheiser's limbs are amputated, his life is derailed and he turns to stand-up comedy as therapy. Meanwhile, a world-famous medical team is performing transplants that restore bodies to unprecedented levels. Despite grave risks, Will agrees to undergo an experimental double-arm transplant in the hope of reclaiming his independence.

Release Date: 2017-03-30

Department: Crew

Job: Thanks

The Show About the Show

Independent Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi is trying to make a television show. He persuades BRIC TV, a Brooklyn non-profit Arts organization, to finance a television show whose premise is that every episode will be about the making of the previous episode. In the process of creating the show, everything can-and does-go wrong. The cast, a who's who of Brooklyn's independent filmmaking community, includes Alex Karpovsky, Eleonore Hendricks, Dustin Defa, and Onur Tukel.

Release Date: 2017-03-17

Character: Tony

Vote Count: 1

18 Black Girls Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and are thus Spiritual Machines: $5 in an Edition of $97 Quadrillion

Release Date: 2017-03-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Jimi Could Have Fallen from the Sky

This short is the unauthorized, heavily abridged, biographical, visual and supersonic moment about the fact that Johnny Allen Hendrix (aka Jimi Hendrix) knew how to skydive. Set in Seattle where Jimi was born and raised, the film wonders aloud about what this skill meant for the life he went on to lead. Why did he retreat to the sky so quickly before all of us were ready for him to go?

Release Date: 2017-01-24

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

Bet She Looks Like You

About the scientific fact that god looks like Naima.

Release Date: 2017-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Lost & Found

A look at modern relationships and the many forms they take. Stella and Ian have an unwedding ceremony to honor what they’ve shared coming to an end. This is the catalyst for a group of 30-somethings now forced to examine their own unraveling lives and challenging dreams.

Release Date: 2017-01-01

The Wreck Itself

Two lives intersect in a dream. We have come to explore the wreck, the thing itself, and not the myth.

Release Date: 2017-01-01

Ryann Holmes

A portrait of Ryann Holmes, community organizer and co-founder of bklyn boihood, un/doing and reframing masculinity.

Release Date: 2016-11-08

Department: Production

Job: Executive Producer

They Charge For The Sun

In a dystopian future where people live nocturnally to avoid the harmful rays of the sun, a young black girl unravels the lie that has kept her and her sister in the dark.

Release Date: 2016-10-22

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Univitellin

Marseille, today. Aminata works as a hairdresser in an Afro hairdressing salon, Badara works as mechanic. When they meet, their love story will change their lives.

Release Date: 2016-10-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 6

18 Black Girls Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and are thus Spiritual Machines: $4 in an Edition of $97 Quadrillion

"is a performance during which I google the phrase '1 year old black girl' ascending in age to the age of 18. I allow Google's 'popular searches' algorithm to predict what comes after the phrase and peruse the results based on what Google thinks I want to search for in a Black girl. The algorithm generates results based on the most popular searches so it can be theorized that the Black girls that the algorithm predicts are the Black girls we are searching for." - Terence Nance (https://vimeo.com/177691039)

Release Date: 2016-08-05

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Women Who Kill

Morgan and Jean work well together as true crime podcasters because they didn’t work well, at all, as a couple. However, when Morgan strikes up a new relationship with the mysterious Simone, their shared interest turns into suspicion, paranoia, and fear.

Release Date: 2016-07-27

Character: Darren

Vote Count: 27

18 Black Boys Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and are thus Spiritual Machines: $3 in an Edition of $97 Quadrillion

"The above is a performance during which I google the phrase '1 year old black boy' ascending in age to the age of 18. I allow Google's 'popular searches' algorithm to predict what comes after the phrase and peruse the results based on what Google thinks I want to search for in a Black boy. The algorithm generates results based on the most popular searches so it can be theorized that the Black boys that the algorithm predicts are the Black boys we are searching for." - Terence Nance (https://vimeo.com/175594694)

Release Date: 2016-07-20

Department: Directing

Job: Director

And Nothing Happened

A young woman dealing with the psychological aftermath of sexual violence shuffles between experiences both mundane and extraordinary as she attempts to leave her New York City apartment.

Release Date: 2016-06-04

Department: Camera

Job: Director of Photography

Vote Count: 3

The Show About the Show

Release Date: 2015-10-06

Episode Count: 2

Vote Count: 2

Swimming in Your Skin Again

Drenched in the heat, spirit and landscape of South Florida, Swimming in Your Skin Again celebrates the spiritual feminine and coming of age. Guided by female inspirations we tour the ritual anchorages of life in and around Miami: the Catholic church, the swamp, the backyard, the water.

Release Date: 2015-05-13

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 2

18 Black Girls Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and are thus Spiritual Machines: $2 in an edition of $97 Quadrillion

"is a performance during which I google the phrase "1 year old black girl" ascending in age to the age of 18. I allow Google's "popular searches" algorithm to predict what comes after the phrase and peruse the results based on what Google thinks I want to search for in a Black girl. The algorithm generates results based on the most popular searches so it can be theorized that the Black girls that the algorithm predicts are the Black girls we are searching for." - Terence Nance. (https://vimeo.com/122993949)

Release Date: 2015-03-23

Department: Directing

Job: Director

You and I and You

This hypnotically surreal dance film is set to a single by the psychedelic rock band the Dig.

Release Date: 2015-02-27

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

Vote Count: 1

The Triptych

Profiles contemporary artists Wangechi Mutu, Barron Claiborne, and Sanford Biggers. Each monologue is a reflection of their life experiences, letting the viewer discover how their observations have shaped the art they create.

Release Date: 2015-02-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

House Date

Charlie hosts a Jessica at his home hoping to progress their relationship, but the date goes terribly wrong when they are interrupted by an unusual force.

Release Date: 2015-01-01

Department: Crew

Job: Thanks

Their Fall Our All

This dreamlike fusion of political thriller and science-fiction fantasia is set to original music by Beyoncé.

Release Date: 2014-12-31

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

18 Black Boys Ages 1-18 Who Have Arrived at the Singularity and are Thus Spiritual Machines: $1 in an edition of $97 Quadrillion

"...during which I google the phrase "1 year old black boy" ascending in age to the age of 18. I allow Google's "popular searches" algorithm to predict what comes after the phrase and peruse the results based on what Google thinks I want to search for in a Black boy. The algorithm generates results based on the most popular searches so it can be theorized that the Black boys that the algorithm predicts are the Black boys we are searching for." - Terence Nance

Release Date: 2014-09-29

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Evolution of a Criminal

In 1997, 17-year old Darius Clark Monroe robbed a bank and went to prison for it; then he went to NYU film school and made this movie about his life. The movie presents itself as an act of atonement, and an attempt by Monroe to understand himself and the social forces that drove him to a life of crime. Executive produced by Spike Lee, who was one of Monroe's professors at NYU.

Release Date: 2014-03-08

Department: Art

Job: Title Designer

Vote Count: 6

Adventures of Christopher Bosh in the Multiverse

A true story behind the notorious Miami face-eating cannibal and how the Miami Heat won the NBA title in 2012 despite one of their star players being an interstellar prince who was called away to do battle with evil foes bent on finally making the Internet completely useless.

Release Date: 2013-06-09

Character: Christopher Bosh / Star Prince Akilobataar

Vote Count: 4

Sweet Honey Chile'

A unique young boy goes on a spiritual journey while honoring his late grandfather with the help of a mystical neighbor. Coco Monroe, Marnye Young, Willie Minor and Dean Schambach star in this short film.

Release Date: 2013-05-04

Department: Art

Job: Title Designer

Moonrising

Extra-celestial beings escape the vagabondary bound to their psyche on foot. Short film by Terence Nance, with music by Sanford Biggers’ concept band Moon Medicine who have been described as “a remedy for saddity, an anecdote for the overly analytic. A balm for the phases, a lunar liniment.”

Release Date: 2013-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Frenel: A Milliner

A Short film about a contemporary milliner in NYC.

Release Date: 2013-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Sleep

Rashad manipulates his kid brother into leaving for school early on the one morning that changes the rest of their lives.

Release Date: 2012-06-21

Department: Art

Job: Graphic Designer

Vote Count: 1

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty

A quixotic artist hypothesizes about why he feels bad when a mystery girl stands him up. The event prompts him to ask: what's the content of a momentary feeling? Is it the sum of your experiences? And perhaps more importantly, are your experiences the sum of you?

Release Date: 2012-01-30

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character:

Vote Count: 18

Everything Absolutely

Everything Absolutely follows a lady out on a date with a guy. A poster, parents, and pesto all somehow find its way into this epic & intimate journey.

Release Date: 2012-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Native Sun

Mumin, a precocious young boy, makes the long trip to Accra from his home in Ghana’s rural northern region. He leaves having just experienced his mothers death, her last words to him a directive to travel to Accra and find the father he has never met. Along the journey he experiences Ghana as only a child can and in so doing expands our view of what the country is and what it will be.

Release Date: 2011-05-01

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 4

Clap One Day

Release Date: 2011-03-08

Department: Directing

Job: Director

The Feeling You Get

Release Date: 2011-01-01

Department: Art

Job: Production Design

Something To Believe In

Directed by Terence Nance, the film addresses the detachment we all battle, when faced with the the world's overwhelming issues. "It's hard to think about all the problems in the world without getting a little overwhelmed. So, a lot of times we just ignore things. I think Africa has suffered a lot because people choose to remain ignorant, rather than address the issues that are right in front of our faces," Blitz said.

Release Date: 2010-07-28

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

How Would You Feel?

A look at the deep-seated roots of our feelings.

Release Date: 2010-02-10

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

No Ward

No Ward is a short documentary about the forced migration of New Orleans residents to cities in Texas. The film juxtaposes the migrations that occurred as a result of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

Release Date: 2009-02-03

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

Word?! I Didn't Know (__) Could Get Down Like That!

Release Date: 2008-01-01

Department: Editing

Job: Editor

African Booty Scratcher

Prom nears and things seem to be spiraling out of control for the typically composed Isatu. In this coming of age story, West African tradition conflicts with American idealism as Isatu is forced to reassess her idea of the perfect dress.

Release Date: 2007-10-18

Department: Sound

Job: Music

Character: Lance