Noah Buschel

After his noir-tinged breakthrough, Buschel pivoted sharply to an intimate, almost theatrical, love story. Made for a budget of just $175,000, Sparrows Dance is a rigorous two-hander about an agoraphobic actress (Marin Ireland) who hasn't left her New York City apartment for months. Her life is thrown into disarray when her toilet overflows, forcing her to call a chatty, saxophone-playing plumber (Paul Sparks). The film is a testament to Buschel's craft, using the most minimal of setups to explore themes of isolation, connection, and resilience. Sparrows Dance went on to win Best Narrative Feature at the Austin Film Festival. The film was also a reaction against the prevailing indie style of the day, which Buschel found frustrating. Surrounded by friends making mumblecore films on no budget, he resolved to make his own version of a low-budget indie, but one that was beautifully shot with professional actors and a real director of photography.

[2003] Bringing Rain ──> [2009] The Missing Person ──> [2012] Sparrows Dance ──> [2016] The Phenom ──> [2020] The Man in the Woods noah buschel

If you asked him, he would say he wasn’t searching for the theatre at all — he was searching for the moment a city decides to keep a memory. The theatre was a door to that moment. With Iris beside him, the search grew precise. They followed addresses that existed and those that had been erased by development. They stood under fire escapes and read the graffiti for dates. They drank coffee in diners that had televisions stuck perpetually in the same decade. The film is a testament to Buschel's craft,

With (2014), Buschel returned to the world of noir. The film stars Corey Stoll as Bud Gordon, a down-on-his-luck former boxing champion who, after falling from grace, becomes entangled with a charismatic but corrupt restaurateur played by Billy Crudup. Buschel has described boxing as "a remarkably quiet and tender place", and the film uses the sport as a metaphor for vulnerability, the compromises of success, and the corruption within the film industry itself. He noted that the purity of an artist training in obscurity is always vulnerable to exploitation, a tension that lies at the heart of the film. "Glass Chin" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival as part of the World Narrative Competition. Surrounded by friends making mumblecore films on no