Table of Contents
Three Key Takeaways
- Dual blends action, horror, sci-fi, comedy, and romance in a tightly woven short film that explores paranoia and family anxieties.
- Nitasha Bhambree and Declan Mulvey bring their stunt coordination expertise to a deeply personal story about trust, identity, and moral choices.
- The filmmakers emphasize collaborative indie spirit, using innovative Steadicam techniques to enhance storytelling while preserving performance continuity.
NYU alumni Nitasha Bhambree and Declan Mulvey, writer-director-producers of the short film Dual, have returned to feature filmmaking after careers as stunt performers and coordinators. Their latest project, selected for the prestigious FilmQuest festival, stars Kiera O’Connor and Robbie Dema and explores the tension of an expecting couple isolated during a global crisis. Combining their action expertise with intimate storytelling, Bhambree and Mulvey craft a genre-bending thriller that challenges audience assumptions about violence and protection.
What drew you to make this film? Why this story, and why now?
It was time for us to try to evolve from our careers as stunt coordinators and 2nd unit directors and show what we could do as filmmakers. We wanted to make a contained action thriller about a couple protecting their home. It started with a simple premise for a scene: What if your husband came home and you weren't sure if it was really him? As we fleshed out more ideas for the world and more dire situations for the characters it evolved into something greater in scale but also more personal. Dual explores the anxieties related to making a home and starting a family. What started this project as a career move evolved into a personal exploration.
What surprised you most about the filmmaking process this time—creatively or logistically? Was there a moment on set or in post that completely changed how you saw the story?
What surprises us, always, is how other artists and filmmakers will come on board a small project like Dual and give so much of themselves to it. Specifically, our cast Kiera O’Connor and Robbie Dema threw themselves into their onscreen relationship to such a degree that it highlighted a character dynamic we had written on the page but didn’t realize to what extent until we saw them embody it. Without spoiling anything, you get a clear sense how they might be their own worst enemies.
“Small tendencies toward darker emotions in one character become catastrophic when enabled by the other.”
Is there a moment in the film that feels the most you—something only you could have made?
The characters’ relationship to each other and the world is very “us”. For better or for worse, we too have an “us against the world” mentality at times and the final scene of the film is quite possibly an admission of the darker sides of our personalities.
What was the hardest creative decision you made while making this film?
The emotional gut-punch of the film about two-thirds of the way through has the characters experience the loss of everything, including themselves. This was filmed towards the end of the shoot and due to time and money constraints we had to starts making concessions in order to preserve our schedule. The most spectacular and violent part of the film was intended to be even more spectacular and violent with an onscreen double murder that would have really driven the point home that our protagonists are in a downward spiral. But we had to save ourselves a few hours of filming in order to preserve all of the essential story beats yet to be filmed. So we’ll have to save those ideas for the feature length version of Dual!
What do you hope audiences take away from your film?
We’d like for audiences to ask themselves what they would have done in this situation. Would they have made the same choices to protect their family and home? And are those choices justifiable?
How has this film shaped or shifted the kind of stories you want to tell next?
We really enjoyed digging deep into these characters’ morality. We want to continue to tell great genre stories with exciting spectacle elements that entertain but also deal with critical themes that we all wrestle with day to day.
What’s a tool, technique, or resource that really helped you during production?
There are so many but we should highlight our use of the Steadicam and our operator John Conquy. The Steadicam allowed us to put the viewer right in the scenes with the characters. We really wanted to avoid "coverage" and over-editing as much as possible, letting the compositions and the actors tell the story. We did that by having Conquy and his Steadicam move gently to multiple points throughout each shot: following, countering, and revealing new things as the scenes played out. It allowed us to control the pace of the film. We didn't HAVE to edit. We could reserve edits for very specific moments where it would be impactful, and avoid it where it might interrupt a performance or some tonal continuity we were building.
“The Steadicam allowed us to put the viewer right in the scenes with the characters.”
Independent filmmakers often rewrite the rules out of necessity. What do you think is the greatest strength of independent filmmaking, and how did you lean into that on this project? Is there a lesson or breakthrough you’d share with others navigating this path?
Independent filmmaking is peak filmmaking. When a project is the just the right size that everyone working on it feels truly involved, and each cast and crew member can put one hundred percent of their effort directly on screen, that is when you have the right production model. As stunt professionals we work on a lot of very large-scale productions, and they are great, but in indie filmmaking where everyone shares the same vision and has an outlet to contribute fully, that is the best use of resources.
What does it mean to you to have your film selected for FilmQuest, one of the world’s top reviewed genre film festivals?
FilmQuest is the perfect venue for us. We love genre films. We have always loved watching them and we love making them. Even if our film wasn’t screening we would want to attend FilmQuest. The lineup of films seems amazing. The workshops are an incredible plus and are stacked with great people sharing valuable information. The sense of community being cultivated there is second to none. The marketing has everyone fully engaged and the branding…Cthulhu as a mascot? Brilliant! We are super psyched to be a part of FilmQuest and can’t wait to attend.
“Independent filmmaking is peak filmmaking. When everyone working on it feels truly involved, that is when you have the right production model.”
FilmQuest celebrates the majesty and might of genre filmmaking across fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action, thriller, western, kung-fu, and beyond. How does your film fit within—or push the boundaries of—genre storytelling?
When we conceived of Dual we knew we wanted to have a touch of all the genres we love: action, horror, sci-fi, and even some comedy and romance. Bollywood refers to it as a “Masala” film. It’s everything you want from a film. It’s ambitious. It can create some tonal whiplash, especially in a short film, but we think audiences are astute enough that you can forego long set ups and lean on the tradition in these genres. Cut to the chase and give people more of what they want.
Where do you see this film going next?
We hope Dual plays at more quality film festivals like FilmQuest. Then we would like to release it on the some of the internet’s premiere short film platforms like Alter and Dust. We are simultaneously fundraising for an action-horror feature film that we hope to shoot in 2026. We also have feature film plans for Dual.
“At the core of all my work is a desire to make the kinds of memorable films we grew up with – stories that empower and inspire people while also entertaining."
Cast & Crew
- Nitasha Bhambree & Declan Mulvey — Writer-Director-Producers, NYU alumni with stunt coordination backgrounds
- Kiera O’Connor — Cast
- Robbie Dema — Cast
- Ian Adelson & RJ Brown — Producers, Floor 1 Productions
- John P. Fitzpatrick — Cinematographer
- John Conquy — Camera/Steadicam operator
- Suzanne Klann — Production Designer
- Jonathan Wing — Composer
- Tristan Watering — Songwriter
Learn more about the film on their Instagram.
