{"id":2003,"date":"2026-01-07T18:52:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2026-01-07T18:52:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T18:52:41","slug":"albert-birney-obex-director-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/albert-birney-obex-director-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"How This Baltimore Director Became One of America\u2019s Most Exciting Indie Filmmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Albert Birney makes films on his own terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His live-action features \u201cThe Beast Pageant,\u201d \u201cSylvio,\u201d \u201cStrawberry Mansion,\u201d and now \u201cOBEX<\/mark><\/a>,\u201d in limited theaters Jan. 9, are so surreal and inventive they feel like they\u2019re from a bygone era.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All were made far away from Hollywood. Birney initially lived in Rochester, New York, before settling in Baltimore, where he shot \u201cOBEX.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sci-fi film stars Birney as Conor Marsh, who lives a life of seclusion in 1987 alongside his dog, Sandy. When he buys the state-of-the-art video game \u201cOBEX,\u201d Sandy is suddenly sucked into the computer. To get him back, Conor must venture into the game\u2019s strange inner world, and the line between real-life and fantasy begins to blur.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Birney, \u201cOBEX\u201d was about holding onto the joy that drew him to filmmaking in the first place. \u201cYou always hear about filmmakers who find success and their careers grow. But when they make bigger films, they often talk about their first film being the most fun and they\u2019re trying to get back to that pure excitement,\u201d he says \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m chasing. I just want to have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birney talks us through his approach to making feature films, why it\u2019s better to be creative than stuck waiting, his love for regional film festivals, and his hope that a new kind of theatrical experience is on the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Put your interests together.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The first kernel of \u201cOBEX\u201d dates back to 2020. Birney had been working on a video game adaptation of his 2019 animated film \u201cTux and Fanny\u201d with game designer Gabriel Koenig, when he began wondering, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be cool to make another video game that\u2019s also a movie, too?\u201d Unable to imagine what that would look like, Birney decided to make a movie about a video game instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story began to take shape the following year as Birney\u2019s life in Baltimore started to make its way into the film: He got a dog, bought two old Macintosh computers from a junk shop, and that summer, trillions of cicadas descended on the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birney had heard numerous stories of filmmakers losing years waiting for financing, only to then have to change their script and dilute their vision. Rather than wait, Birney grabbed his camera and filmed cicadas crawling through his backyard garbage can, even though he had no idea how he\u2019d use the footage.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a big believer in using what you have available, whether it\u2019s a location or a prop, and building things around that,\u201d says Birney. \u201cI just knew there were so many cicadas around and I\u2019d better document them in case I needed to use them for something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year later, Birney called up his friend Pete Ohs, a fellow filmmaker who wrote and co-directed 2017\u2019s \u201cEverything Beautiful Is Far Away.\u201d Birney invited him to Baltimore to help develop the film. \u201cIt was just the two of us. He\u2019d be doing camera and sound. I was acting and directing. Plus, there was my dog, Dorothy\u2026. We edited that, then another year later we knew we needed some more actors, costumes, and props. Even then, we only had one other person as a crew member for the second half of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Build where you are.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Despite working as a filmmaker for over 20 years, Birney says he has never considered moving to either New York City or Los Angeles. \u201cEarly on I realized I didn\u2019t need to live in those places.\u201d After studying at Syracuse University, Birney chose to live in Rochester and make his debut film, \u201cThe Beast Pageant,\u201d in upstate New York over the course of a few years. \u201cI could live comfortably there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After moving to Baltimore, he then launched a Kickstarter<\/mark><\/a> for his full-length project \u201cSylvio,\u201d which raised $52,138. \u201cThat was around 10 years ago. It was enough to make a feature film, and I haven\u2019t really looked back.\u201d Even Ohs, who was once based in L.A., lived as a bit of a nomad, as Birney says, before settling in Oklahoma for the time being.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embrace regional film festivals.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Birney has traveled to many festivals with his films. \u201cSylvio\u201d debuted at South by Southwest in 2017, while both \u201cStrawberry Mansion\u201d (2021) and \u201cOBEX\u201d (2025) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSundance is the thing you dream about when you\u2019re a kid just thinking about making movies,\u201d he says. While he\u2019s grateful for those experiences, the scale of those events can feel disorienting. \u201cWhen they\u2019re over, you\u2019re almost like: What happened? I don\u2019t know if I had a good time,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the most meaningful moments with \u201cOBEX\u201d on the festival circuit have been at more regional gatherings. \u201cThey\u2019re always so excited to play your work. It makes your visit feel a bit nicer. Those are the ones I\u2019ve cherished over the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the cinematic landscape continues to change, Birney has been looking at different ways to find his audience. Not only has he been making his own Blu-rays, which he packages and mails himself, he also books his own screenings. He points to the success of Mike Cheslik\u2019s \u201cHundreds of Beavers\u201d\u2014which premiered at Fantastic Fest in September 2022, and continues to sell out theatrical screenings across the country\u2014as proof that \u201cpeople are craving something different.\u201d He adds, \u201cI know that\u2019s what I\u2019m craving. I want an authentic movie experience that feels removed from the stuff that studios put out.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOBEX\u201d filmmaker Albert Birney reflects on building a career defined by following his instincts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":2006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAlbert Birney on Making Indie Films Outside Hollywood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The \u201cOBEX\u201d director shares how working small, staying local, and using what he had helped shaped his career.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfreeway.com\/articles\/albert-birney-obex-director-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta 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