What's with your nails?

BACKGROUND Alexandre Astruc, Marsha Berry, Alexandra Juhasz, Max Schleser and Jia Tan’s respective scholarship across the fields of the camera stylo, mobile media and queer documentary practice informed the creation of this short essay film about queerness, normality, slowness, and painted fingernails. Smartphone filmmaking offers a unique opportunity for queer filmmakers to make personal films that challenge dominant narratives and explore notions of queer identity and becoming. The film is driven by the research question: ‘How can a queer filmmaker embrace smartphone technology to explore personal storytelling in post-marriage equality Australia?’. CONTRIBUTION The film makes use of the accessibility, ubiquity and individuality of smartphone devices to tell a queer filmic story by a sole author. The embrace of unusual camera angles, perspectives and imperfections are a rebuke of cinematic traditions and a strategy for exploring an aesthetic of queer becoming. In making explicit the exploration of embracing behaviors and identities that are not considered normal, the film acknowledges the power of personal and reflective storytelling to share queer subjectivities on screen. SIGNIFICANCE The film was selected by an international panel of judges to screen at the International Mobile Innovation Screening in 2018 (held by MINA – Mobile Innovation Network and Association) in Melbourne (Swinburne University: 16 Nov 2018) and Wellington (Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, Te Anakura Whitiāhua: 1 Dec 2018). The film was also screened at Cinemq, Shanghai on 17 Jan 2019, and referenced in the book ‘Smartphone Filmmaking: Theory and Practice’ (Schleser 2021, Bloomsbury). MINA has received critical attention, notably in ‘Understanding Social Media’ (2nd ed., by Hjorth & Hinton, 2019, Sage).