How Theater Director Karma Masselli ’19 Is Using Short Film to Bridge Connections in Bushwick

Short-form video content is everywhere. We watch Reels while brushing our teeth and TikToks on the train. We might see a short clip of someone making a seasonal treat on subway screens, or a snippet of the nightly news on the pump at the gas station. As apps like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube vie for our attention through addictive 30-second videos, Karma Masselli ’19 (BFA, Drama) has a different idea of how short-form content can bring us together.

Karma, a Brooklyn-based theater director and Tisch Department of Drama/Playwright Horizons alumna, first noticed an interesting conundrum with modern short-form content. “It’s one of the largest forms of media consumption we’ve seen in history that has no outlet to experience collectively,” she said in a conversation with Alex Manges of NYU Tisch Alumni Relations. “We consume these videos in a vacuum and then wonder why we feel lonely.”

Several years ago, an idea occurred to Karma: What if there were a space where people could watch short films together? A dedicated movie theater just for shorts, where people could gather to discuss what they watched?

Though this type of theater seems novel today, the roots of short film and its public consumption go back to the birth of modern cinema. In 1895, brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière facilitated the first public film screening on record, showcasing ten films—all under one minute long. From then until 1906, short films were the reigning form of media for viewers, all of which were experienced together in theaters.

Today, Karma is turning her idea into a reality. Located in a cozy Bushwick space, Shorts Movie Theater will be the first of its kind for modern audiences, honoring a 100-plus-year-old practice through the lens of a 2026 attention span.

Located at 236 Troutman Street, Shorts Movie Theater will play a rotating selection of the best new and classic short films, curated by Karma and her programming team. Viewers can watch as many (or as few) films as they like, and then discuss them over a drink at the bar right outside the auditorium.

Alex Manges spoke with Karma recently outside the soon-to-open Shorts Movie Theater as a small army of volunteers and staff worked to prepare the space.

Alex Manges: Before we dive into Shorts, can you tell us a little bit about what brought you to NYU Tisch and your time in the Drama department?

Karma Masselli: I knew I wanted to be a theater director from a young age. As I looked through programs, NYU won me over because of my portfolio review with Fritz Ertl.

At the review, five of us were waiting for our application interviews. Alex Bush ’19 (BFA, Drama), who is now the Director of Partnerships at Shorts, was actually seated right next to me. We were the last two appointments of the day.

I was so proud of my portfolio! Fritz opened the binder, flipped through it insanely fast, like barely looked at it, closed the book, and just said, “So, what do you think art should be about in your life?” We talked for an hour, and at the end of that conversation, he said, “All great. I think you’re in—as long as your SAT scores are fine, we should talk about what comes next.”

I thought, this is real tutelage. This is a person who understands how to guide another artist.

He ran our whole curriculum, and everything was shaped by him. Ultimately, he taught me that your job as an artist isn't to tell everybody what your idea is. It's to listen to your audience, figure out what they need, and try to meet those needs.

AM: What needs do you think today’s audiences have that Shorts helps address?

KM: We’re seeing a growing addiction to a form of media that is, by definition, consumed in isolation. Social media has removed the shared experience from the audience, and it makes you wonder: what does that mean for us? With Shorts, we want to inject that shared experience back into being an audience. How can we meet people where they are instead of asking them to change their behavior or blaming them for shorter attention spans? Blaming people won’t change anything.

The whole idea bubbled up from my theater-directing ethos: your relationship with your audience is key to every decision you make. That goes right back to my education with Fritz.

When I first came up with the idea of a movie theater for short films, I also realized the audience hasn't really been considered in the short-film ecosystem. In the current model, the filmmaker is treated like the customer. They pay for everything to happen—the submissions, the production, all of it—because there are no actual customers. The best thing you can do for an early-career artist is to generate an audience of customers who provide a renewable source of funding simply because they're interested in the product.

AM: With your background as a theater director, do you feel like you're approaching this as a piece of theater?

KM: Oh, absolutely. Sometimes people ask, “Do you think you'll ever direct a play again?” And I tell them, I’m doing that right now.

I love thinking of it as a play; it’s a live entertainment experience. I’m so excited for us to open and see people share this experience—and hopefully open themselves up a little more to a sense of possibility in the world.

"The first two years have been a journey of trying to figure out how to legitimize myself, and then putting that work in. A lot of what I've had to do is go from saying, “I have a really good idea” to convincing people that I can pull off the good idea."

AM: It’s clear this has taken an enormous amount of work and perseverance. Can you tell me a bit about the collaborators you’ve worked with to bring this to life?

KM: It's almost impossible to capture everyone who has worked on this; I’ve been so lucky to have so many amazing partners. I feel like I'm holding the end of a rope and jumping off a cliff, and everyone behind me is saying, "Welp, guess we're jumping too!"

I’d especially like to highlight two of my most key collaborators—though there are around 50 of them! The first is my mom. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs and have been so supportive, but my mom is a core part of my foundation. She started a children's museum when she was pregnant with me (Kidcity in Middletown, CT) because she wanted a children’s museum. Whenever I face obstacles, she reminds me, “That's perfectly normal. Keep going. Keep working.”

The second is Paul Leibowitz, our real estate broker. He was the first adult who took me seriously who wasn't related to me. He runs IndieSpace, which helps arts non-profits find spaces, and he's helped something like 400 theaters in New York City. He spent about a year showing me how other nonprofits were operating when they were doing with their spaces, what financial stresses they were under, and how to present myself as somebody who’s actually gonna do this.

The first two years have been a journey of trying to figure out how to legitimize myself, and then putting that work in. A lot of what I've had to do is go from saying, “I have a really good idea” to convincing people that I can pull off the good idea. Paul was the biggest factor in that. He became somebody trustworthy who I could point to and say, “This person thinks that this is gonna happen too.”

And then my peer collaborators! Alex [Bush], my Director of Partnerships, has been an enormous force in this legitimacy campaign. They're a good talker, and they're a good seller, and they can speak the film language to the film people, something I’m not well versed in. Pierre Plantevin and Manuela Romero ‘20 (BFA, Drama) are our programmers and bring a level of taste and a lack of interest in clout that I think is a really important thing in the creative side of this. Finally, Kara, our Director of Acquisitions, has essentially created a theatrical licensing model for individual short films from scratch. She’s currently working with 250 films, effectively running a massive distribution operation single-handedly.

"Originality is not the goal; it’s the method. It’s about trying something new, and then trying it again."

AM: Shorts Movie Theater is the first of its kind for modern audiences. What does it mean to you to create something truly unique?

KM: I think that's why being an artist in this venture is a good thing, because for me, originality is not the goal; it’s the method. It’s about trying something new, and then trying it again, just to see what happens. We’re living in this time when it feels like the focus is often on the 99% chance that things won’t work—that we're gonna lose, that we're gonna die, that the world is gonna end in nuclear war, whatever. What if we just imagined that our job was just to focus on the 1% that it works out well?

This has been such an educational experience for me in the practice of optimism. And optimism feels like a good way to frame it, because this is not about a genius idea or a lot of success. It's about the act of hope that, ideally, a lot of people can be a part of.

Ultimately, what I would love is for people who come through this space to leave feeling like, “I really like my life when I’m here.” And I think we’re creating that, together. ⧫

To follow the Shorts Movie Theater journey and plan your visit, check out shortsmovietheater.com or follow them on Instagram @shortsmovietheater.