Birdie is a short film set in 1970 about a 16-year-old Nigerian refugee living in Virginia who tries to keep her family together when a newcomer begins to pull her sister away.

My production design approach was to bring warmth and life into a house under a Catholic church. I wanted to merge the cold, austere character of the space with the warm, vibrant colors of a Nigerian refugee family rebuilding their lives far from home.

We filmed in Virginia during the autumn, spending a week searching through antique and thrift stores to find objects that felt authentic to the world of the film. Together with the costume design and the evolving story, we continuously refined the environment to help reveal the emotional dynamics between the mother, her two daughters, and the stranger entering their lives.