a short film by Tim Nicholas

HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER is an anxious ensemble comedy about the frustrations of co-habitation & the rhythms of everyday life.

Six roommates share a cramped four bedroom apartment. One moves out. Another moves in. And in the process, the delicate balance of their routines is comically disrupted.

Sound: 5.1 & stereo available
Genre: Narrative, Comedy, Experimental
Language: English

Running time: 17 min, 22 sec
Aspect ratio: 4:3 & 16:9
Color: Black & white (digital)
Screening format: 2K; DCP & Pro Res available

In a chaotic, crowded apartment, the departure of one roommate and arrival of another sparks a cascade of minor upheavals. HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER unfolds over several days through an ensemble of tightly packed lives: a deadpan sculptor who lives in a tent in the living room, a neurotic vegan micromanager, a gregarious New Ager, a cardio-obsessed weeaboo, a video artist whose constant ribbing keeps everyone on edge.

SYNOPSIS

Marrying quotidian slapstick and maximalist aesthetics, the film’s experimental audio-visual style captures the messy, tense reality of shared living through a chaotic interplay of bodies, gestures, and possessions. People and objects are treated as equal protagonists. The camera lingers on greasy counters, slimy utensils, and baroque accumulations of clutter, creating a grotesque, claustrophobic visual world. Dense soundscapes embrace distraction as a sonic principle, layering overlapping dialogue and sudden jarring noises that disrupt focus.

The result is an intense, hyperreal sensory experience that plunges the viewer into the anxious, fractured, and often absurd rhythms of communal life.

This film grew directly out of my own experiences living with other people. As an artist, and previously as a student, cohabitation has been a practical necessity for all of my adult life, and my time spent living with numerous friends & strangers has furnished me with countless stories, equally ridiculous & mundane, alternately charming & exasperating. My collaborators, too, have contributed stories of their own.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

But HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER isn’t about creating an ideal life. Rather, it’s about a very UN-intentional community. It’s about the contingency of who we find our lives enmeshed with; the ways we rely on one another without meaning to; and the everyday absurdity of sharing space with people whose behaviors, routines, values, preferences, and expectations might be very different from our own.

I’ve long been interested in the ways people build their lives among others. My past work has often focused on utopianism, and for years I’ve studied the history of intentional communities.

Tim Nicholas is a writer-director, producer, and production designer from New York, now based in Los Angeles. He holds a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute and an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts. His work and collaborations have screened at Locarno, Rotterdam, Ann Arbor, FIDMarseille, NewFest, Prismatic Ground, and more. As production designer, credits include FAMILY PORTRAIT (2023) and DEATH AND BOWLING (2021). Also a writer and artist, he co-ran the STUDIUM/punctum micropress (2014–2018), publishing zines and artists’ books.

(Writer / Director)

TIM NICHOLAS

LUCY KERR as Jennifer

KEY CAST

TYLER RIGGIN as Ryan

KEY CREW

Colorist & Visual Effects Artist
RÔMULO MAIA

LARK LYRA LOU HILL as Kelsey

JESS GOLDSCHMIDT as Kate

ABRIEL GARDNER as Alyssa

QUINN ELSE as Spencer

ROB RICE as Mike

Sound Designer
ANDREW SIEDENBURG

Mixed in 5.1 by
CHRISTOPHER WOLL

Art Director
SANTOS ARRUE

Director of Photography
ALEXANDER GIRAV

Production Designer
SAM CREELY

Producer
JACKII CHUN

CRAFTING CHAOS:
THE WRITING PROCESS

The screenplay was born from an unconventional and highly collaborative approach, inspired by the spirit of devised theater.

The end result combines the lively, unpredictable energy of improvisation with the rhythmically precise, rapid-fire verbosity of classic screwball comedy — a paradoxical mixture of chaos & choreography, naturalism & artifice.

(stills from ensemble improvisation workshops)

I began with candid interviews with collaborators & friends about their real-life experiences living with roommates. These personal stories & fragmentary observations then served as springboards for a series of improvisational workshops with an ensemble cast, out of which characters, scenarios, and dialogue took shape. These raw, spontaneous elements were finally arranged and refined into a tightly scripted form.

HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER is an anxious ensemble comedy about the frustrations of co-habitation & the rhythms of everyday life.