FiB Exhibitions
Valentine's Day - June 30, 2026
LIVE LONG: On Grief, Memory, and Connection
The World of Noelle P. Wilson
Blending grounded emotion with touches of the surreal, LIVE LONG introduces a subtle, otherworldly presence that seems to move through a home, gently shaping moments of connection.
Live Long unfolds within the intimate landscape of a family altered by loss, tracing the fragile space where silence, memory, and presence intersect.
The story centers on Mandy, a daughter attempting to reach her father in the quiet aftermath of her mother’s passing, as each member of the household drifts into their own private way of coping. Words fail, routines take over, and distance begins to settle into the rooms they once shared.
DIRECTOR'S REFLECTION:
Live Long was inspired by a yearning to explore how no two people grieve the same and what it might look like if a person was so consumed by grief... that they literally sank into the furniture.
Of course, I wouldn't be me if the film didn't also explore how the spirits of those who have left us behind somehow keep us together.
While walking in my neighborhood during the pandemic, I came across a house completely covered in ivy. I couldn't help but imagine... What if that ivy was the spirit of someone who died... and they returned to wrap those left behind in a sort of giant hug?
My mom died when I was eighteen and her spirit still shows up in my life on a daily basis, so this ivy hug didn't really seem so far fetched.
And so was the start of Live Long, my most ambitious short film to date, and a love letter to my father and brother who can "speak" Star Trek but still can't talk about my mom's death.
LIVE LONG reflects on how grief reshapes relationships and how communication often takes unexpected paths when language no longer feels accessible. Familiar objects, gestures, and rituals become the spaces where feeling is expressed, even when conversations cannot be had directly. The father’s retreat into repetition and the daughter’s effort to reach him form a quiet emotional tension that drives the film forward.
Noelle P. Wilson is an actor, writer and filmmaker born and based in New York City. She is a recent graduate of the Stony Brook University Graduate Program, with a focus in TV Writing. Often drawn to stories that feature the female struggle around sex, god, grief and ghosts (naturally), Noelle's projects are inspired by people who value the chosen family and refuse to be labeled by society's unrealistic standards.
Exploring her passion for film over the last decade, LIVE LONG marks Noelle's ninth and most ambitious short form project to date. Written, directed and produced by Noelle, LIVE LONG uses magical realism, practical effects and puppetry to breathe life into a story about how one family copes with death.
Noelle is a teaching artist at The Barrow Group, founded by Lee Brock and Seth Barish, and a volunteer at The 52nd Street Project, a non-profit arts education and mentoring organization dedicated to the young people who live in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City.
