I direct & edit narrative and docu-realistic work, in whatever length the story is.
Across everything I've made — vertical, documentary, narrative — the question is the same: can we see who this person actually is? And can they?
I'm Stephen SmallWarner, based in Brooklyn, NY. I'm a first-gen, my parents came here from Barbados.
I got into vertical by accident. During my MFA at NYU Tisch Asia I watched commuters in Singapore ride home glued to Korean dramas on their phones, and it was obvious the screen had moved and the craft hadn't followed. What struck me was the singularity of mobile viewing; the one-to-one instead of the one-to-many cinema was predicated on. I've been building for it since 2014, and wrote a book about it in 2020.
Craft is consistency, which maintains quality at any budget level.
Selected Projects
Killa of Laverne — Vertical narrative. Director, writer, DP. 14 min.
Open House — Feature. Director, DP, editor.
Agandi — Feature documentary. Director.
Year of the Dog — Pilot. Director, co-writer.
Brand — American Express · FedEx · BET · FENDI
TFI Residency · Vertical Filmmaking: An Innovation in Cinema (2020)
Booking projects for Fall '26 through Spring '27.
steve@smallwarner.com