Obex director made a Lynchian thriller more informed by Zelda than movies

Between larger projects — including a follow-up to 2021’s Strawberry Mansion, the surrealist fantasy he co-directed with filmmaker and NoBudge founder Kentucker Audley — Birney found himself stuck in a familiar creative purgatory. Ideas were piling up, but the stars weren’t aligning. So he did what anyone with the indie film bug would do: called a cameraman to come shoot a movie starring him and his dog.