Niles Abston Did It With His Crew. So Can You.

By Stuti Sharma

‘98 Honda is an exciting success story to watch unfold and is a a mark of change in the filmmaking world. Filmmaking, and specifically writing for TV & Film, is a very difficult place to be right now. It’s so rare that an original script will land in a room where it will be read, let alone see the light of day to go into production. In this particular moment, filmmakers find themselves in a testament to the power of DIY & Independent Film and how it has always led the way by allowing filmmakers to try new things, play, and create by just having fun, not playing into the numbers game that is trying to make a living in entertainment. Film is one of the youngest artistic mediums that we have, that’s why it is so fucking fun to make a movie.

I found Niles Abston on twitter a while back and, during a distant relationship with stand up comedy, I listened to one of Niles’ albums on Spotify and found myself captivated again by this art form that I’ve been plagued with since I was 20. I was really touched by his frankness when he talked about the financial difficulties of being an artist & his perspective on how to find a way through it. Last year, I left my full time job answering support desk emails and live chats for an app teachers use (it was like the Abbott Elementary episode when they got that new reading software), and I decided to pursue art as a full-time freelancer. Making this choice as a poor artist from an immigrant background was hard. I ate oatmeal for days. I waited in line at the food pantry. I worked my ass off. I spiraled. I found my voice. I lost my voice. I realized I couldn’t do what I was trying to do without help, so I asked for help.

What resonates with me in Niles’ work is that he does what all great creative leaders do: share their experiences through their chosen medium, connect with others who are doing similar things, and then build with these people to make projects happen. You can tell from his work - from independently funding the film to production, Niles is surrounded by his homies, his people who he calls up when he has a good idea,help him see it through.. I have the same ecosystem of creative homies; we help each other make good shit. It makes sense to me that Niles, originally from Mississippi and currently based in L.A., is drawn to Chicago as his next move. 

While being an artist from Chicago carries a specific struggle because of how our city is, it also carries a specific loyalty, warmth, and community-centered approach. It’s no coincidence that ensembles in storefront theater–a non-hierarchical, community-centered performance– is one of Chicago’s most defining performing arts. Chicago is the smallest big city I know. Everyone knows everyone. Names carry weight in Chicago. Reputations, opportunities, collaborations rely on a small and fast word of mouth. At worst, this gives way to a scene with too much name dropping and shit talking. At best, many dope people working together build something powerful, special, and inspiring. Niles Abston has done the latter with ‘98 Honda, and you could palpably feel that celebration at the Chicago sold out secret screening. Experiencing that event, attending it amongst comedians and musicians who I so deeply respect in the Chicago creative scene such as Remy Guzman, Ausar, and Jay Wood, made me feel the change that is happening in comedy and filmmaking. 

Every day people get on formerly-twitter.com and deliver critiques of how unoriginal movies are these days, and the truth that few are aware of is that hundreds of amazing scripts get stuck in dead ends on the long, inequitable road from first draft of screenplay to having a screening. One of my favorite documentaries about filmmaking, Sandi Tan’s Shirkers (2018), featured a vindictive film mentor who stole all of Sandi’s film canisters for decades, her film which would have been Singapore’s first road movie in the summer of 1992. My own first short film, (Working Title: Bye Bye Baby), that won finalist for the Open TV Fellowship in 2023 still remains stuck for many less dramatic but still frustrating reasons. You have to patiently cultivate a relationship with rejection to be a filmmaker. You have to work with a crew of people gracious enough to stay with you and maybe even love you and friend you through the process.

The first time I watched ‘98 Honda at the screening, I was struck by how the waves of warm light and cold light hold and tell the story very effectively - all intentionally written and executed by the filmmakers. The movie begins with cold lighting and then weaves through different tones but ends warm but with a shocking cliffhanger. I could watch the lush sets and slow & intentional shots over and over, such as the beginning with bacon frying, vinyl spinning, Jesus portraits on display that signal Sunday morning; the coolness and cloudy nostalgia around when Pope (played by Niles), Brittany (Kelsey Fonise), and Sean (Amir Carr) drive to the diner that Brittany works at; the split screen drug deals in bright sunny locations that were such a great way to move the story forward visually.

Like Shirkers, ‘98 Honda is also a type of road movie, and it does its job well, especially how it works with the characters that this car brings together. Part of the plot involves a quest to see Spider Man in theaters on opening weekend. We’re landed into the characters’ worlds with enough context to feel their struggles and hopes almost instantly, but we are not given too much context as to take away their mystery; it’s really intimate to watch as a viewer and intriguing to study as a filmmaker, because this level of detail and consideration is happening all the time, with every character simultaneously. 

The sharp comedic beats reflect every screenwriter’s dream to have your jokes translate so well off the page. There’s a scene at the T-Mobile store between Pope and a friend setting him up with a burner phone (played by Sha'Corey Young) that is one of the funniest conversations I’ve seen on screen.

The narrator being a grown man’s voice through a kid who’s just going about his day that is unfortunately dependent on the adults in his life was so generous and funny and made me think about how we look back on things that happened to us when we were kids and have a better understanding - both of our selves and also of the humanity of the adults around us who were (for the most part) doing their best.

INTERVIEW WITH NILES ABSTON: 

SS: How does it feel to have paved the path for your success being in your current moment by doing it your way? Independently, calling your shots, putting your homies on?

NA: It's truly the most fun I've ever had. I have some of the most talented friends in the world and film allows me to bring them and all their skills together. Makes me feel like Samuel L Jackson in those post-credit Marvel movie scenes. Doing it independently like this makes you all's live reactions to the film hit extra hard for me because so much work went into making this happen. 

SS: How does the patterns of warm and cold lighting play into the story you write?

NA: We really wanted to evoke emotion with the lighting. Our director of photography, Eric Schleicher just has the best eye so he and the team really made great choices lighting each scene based on the script. One of my personal favorites is the light behind Diane Powell who plays Aunt Carolyn when she walks into the bedroom to find her nephew, Sean (Amir Carr). 

SS: You honor and also cast distance from religion. The Spider-Man on the altar next to the various decorated crucifixes spoke to me the strongest about this. Is Spider-Man your strongest belief? 

NA: Our set design and props team (Natasha Nicolaou & Gabrielle Rosson) are hilarious in their own right and that was their idea. They have little visual jokes throughout the film that are so funny to me. It really does a good job of just playing on this premise I've always had that Jesus is just every Black grandma's Spider-Man. If they had let Donald Glover play Spider-Man back in the day he probably would be my strongest belief no lie. 

SS: You were one of the most vocal comedians at the beginning of the genocide in Palestine in October [of 2023]. Thank you. As creators of color who talk about social issues, we are constantly having to explain ourselves or have our work seen through a lens we may have not intended but white people project on us. What is your take on creatively talking about things you care about in the world that affect you and those around you but also knowing when you just want to make something silly and fun that doesn’t have to be about pain?

It's a strange predicament we're in huh? White artists and creators aren't really expected to talk about social issues in their art. They can just be. Everybody else has to represent their race perfectly and make a statement but then not do it too much so your shit is still entertaining. I can only imagine how much pressure the big names in Black film feel sometimes because we just want to be silly too. There's not enough new non-white silly on our screens these days; that's why everybody's on Tik Tok. But I do personally love to talk about social issues or what's going on in the world in my stand up comedy because of the level of difficulty of making those things funny and it's just important to me because that's how I was raised. As far as [Palestine], I just feel a responsibility to amplify what the people over there are saying and what they're going through because years ago (2020) after I had released my first comedy special someone reach out to me that had lost a family member in the Gaza Strip and that my comedy was among the list of things they watched to cheer themselves up so that made me do a lot of research and learn about what's happened to the Palestinian people. So I guess I said all that to say I make sure I do both because everyone just wants to be able to just unplug and watch something silly and I'd love to be that silly thing people watch when they're feeling down. Hopefully when '98 Honda hits a wide theater release in a couple years it'll be that for people.

Niles is going to be having a few events coming up in LA & New York. Go to his Chicago screening on March 31st in LA and his New York screening on April 19th.

He’ll also be taping an hour special June 17th & June 19th, so save the date for that as well as follow his work at https://linktr.ee/nilesabston for more upcoming details on this hour special and the rest of his work.