Growing up in Hickory, North Carolina, Nash Consing ’21 would watch the Disney Channel or surf YouTube just like any kid. But even at a young age, as a Filipino-American, Consing realized that something was missing from the content he was watching.
“My story and my existence and the existence of people who look like me wasn’t on TV,” Consing said. “And when people did look like me, their stories didn’t relate to me or validate my experience. Subconsciously, I think I had a reaction to that.”
Propelled by this, Consing was one of those kids who seemed to always have a camera in his hand, looking for any untold story to film. He would write scripts or music videos, and then recruit his older sisters or friends to be the on-camera talent. A math teacher from his middle school still shows her students a video that Consing made about the number pi.
This was more than a childhood phase. Consing keeps a sixth-grade class scrapbook where he wrote that he wanted to be a filmmaker when he grew up. He also had a sense that he wanted to center Asian-Americans and Asians in the stories he shared.
Consing, who is graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill this May as a journalism and media major with a focus in visual communications, is now on the verge of realizing that dream. As he concludes his time at Carolina, he is in the final stages of creating a documentary film that turns the camera on his hometown of Hickory to share the story of a small Asian community there.