Milk & Honey Films has signed Los Angeles-based director, photographer and writer Karsu Nalbantoglu for global commercial representation, adding a multidisciplinary filmmaker whose work blends documentary instinct with bold, carefully crafted visual storytelling.
Nalbantoglu moves between commercial filmmaking, documentary, photography and narrative work, but curiosity about people remains a constant. Her approach combines spontaneous encounters and observational filmmaking with strong composition, color and constructed visual worlds without losing the humanity underneath them.
That combination is particularly evident in her latest personal photography project, Portraits on Pico.
Armed with a medium-format camera, Nalbantoglu set out to walk roughly 15 miles of Pico Boulevard from Downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica, photographing the people she encountered along the way.
What began as a walk became a five-day exploration of one of LA’s most varied thoroughfares. Nalbantoglu stopped to talk with and photograph shopkeepers, mechanics, musicians, tailors, and people she simply happened to meet, creating a portrait of Los Angeles through the communities connected by a single street.
The project reflects an instinct that runs through much of her work: approaching strangers with curiosity and allowing the unexpected to become part of the story.
Nalbantoglu is exploring that idea again in Cherry, an upcoming short film currently in post-production. The dialogue-driven story follows a protagonist dealing with grief as her experience begins to shift through an unexpected conversation with someone she has just met. Take a look below:
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“At its core, Cherry is about the beauty of talking with strangers,” Nalbantoglu shared. “We just have fewer barriers up, because with a stranger there are no expectations yet.”
Rather than relying on action to keep the narrative moving, Cherry slows things down and lets conversation and performance do much of the work. Inspired in part by the observational intimacy of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, Nalbantoglu wanted the encounter to feel discovered rather than constructed.
“From a filmmaking perspective, it was an incredibly attractive challenge, because often we can feel pressured to focus on action to move a short film forward,” she said. “Cherry intentionally strips that all away.”
The film grew out of another self-imposed challenge. Nalbantoglu gave herself just 30 days to take the project from concept through crowdfunding, casting, pre-production and principal photography.
While post-production has continued beyond that timeline, the compressed schedule became part of the experiment, forcing her to decide quickly, trust her instincts, and stay open to uncertainty.
That balance between preparation and spontaneity comes partly from Nalbantoglu’s background in documentary filmmaking and editing. She edits her own work and sees that experience as an important part of how she directs.
“My background gives me a broader creative perspective, and strengthens each part of the filmmaking process,” Nalbantoglu said. “I’m not just looking for the best shot as a standalone. I’m viewing it from that cinematic lens, but also thinking about how it will come together, how it can be edited, and how it serves the full story.”
Her commercial work has brought that sensibility to campaigns for brands including The North Face, ASICS and CORDURA, balancing documentary realism with more constructed imagery across lifestyle, editorial and social work.
For Milk & Honey Films, Nalbantoglu adds another filmmaker whose creative identity extends beyond a traditional commercial-directing lane.
“Karsu has an incredible curiosity about people, and that comes through whether she is photographing somebody she has just met on the street or directing a fully produced commercial,” said Paige Blankenship, Executive Producer at Milk & Honey Films. “She knows how to create beautiful, considered imagery without losing the humanity underneath it.”
Blankenship added that the combination makes Nalbantoglu particularly well suited to the kind of work Milk & Honey wants to develop with brands.
For a director whose work often begins with wondering who she might encounter next, the new partnership gives her a considerably larger world to keep looking in.
REEL 360 News wishes Karsu the best of luck at Milk & Honey.
