Indie Spotlight: ‘Silent Brokelyn’ Breathes New Life Into Old Genre

We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now.  Read previous installments here. 

A web series that debuts its episodes on one of the hippest, newest web video platforms is ironically taking its cues from the oldest form of video entertainment. Silent Brokelyn, which is separated into 15-second installments on Instagram, is a modern day silent film.

Silent Brokelyn is the first web series available on a channel called InstaMiniSeries, which debuts content exclusively on the Facebook-owned social media site. Instagram is a burgeoning option for independently-minded creators, but this is the first time we’ve seen a series add old-school, black and white production to the mix. Stars Nikki Borges and Amanda de la Nuez portray the sort of young Brooklyn artists we see very often in this space, but the Chaplin-esque feel provides a unique wrinkle and allows for some amusing situations that would not be possible in a web series driven by spoken words.

New episodes of the series arrive each Tuesday and Thursday, and 18 of them have already rolled out. Recently, Silent Brokelyn has experimented with two and three-part episodes, which cheat Instagram’s 15-second limitation and allow for longer, more nuanced scenarios. According to Borges, there’s still plenty more episodes to come, so head over to Instagram to check out this clever, loving tribute to the film stars of the early 20th century.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Culpa. This web series brings the hot anthology format to the Internet with a series of stories featuring recurring characters.
• Fauxtography. A professional photographer looks to make his way in a world where everyone has their own camera.
• Mad World. Creator Callum Richardson offers viewers a slickly-shot post-apocalyptic adventure.
• About Us. A trio of friends battle against their individual struggles.

Got a series you’d like to see featured in the Indie Spotlight? Be sure to contact us here. For best coverage, please include a full episode in your e-mail.