Billie McKelvie

Billie
McKelvie

Multimedia artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Documentary film, oil painting, and 35mm photography.

New York, NY · b. 1998

Film

Two films

All Bottles Go to Heaven

Co-directed and co-produced with Katyayani Kumar and Nichole Whitney

2026

A UnionDocs Collaborative Studio production

Most believe recycling isn’t real, but at redemption centers nothing goes to waste.

Every day in New York City, 10,000 canners work collecting bottles and cans from curbs, residents, and businesses by the bagful for the state’s five cent deposit. Inside the centers the sorting never stops, and the space holds more than bottles: signs in five languages, free cold water, lockers, music, committees, events, and people work together. Without the deposit or handling fees rising in nearly 50 years, the math has stopped working for anyone. New York’s redemption centers face mass closure and an end to the state’s most effective recycling stream. By listening to more than just the sounds of collection, instead turning our attention to the voices of canners and sorting systems that build the economy, we understand what’s at stake for all of us.

Co-Directed byBILLIE MCKELVIE, KATYAYANI KUMAR, & NICHOLE WHITNEY CinematographyKATYAYANI KUMAR & BILLIE MCKELVIE Produced byBILLIE MCKELVIE, KATYAYANI KUMAR, & NICHOLE WHITNEY EditingNICHOLE WHITNEY, KATYAYANI KUMAR, & BILLIE MCKELVIE SoundNICHOLE WHITNEY Sound MixingKATYAYANI KUMAR ColorKATYAYANI KUMAR Additional MusicBILLIE MCKELVIE & NICHOLE WHITNEY This project is a UnionDocs Collaborative Studio Production.

Over the Board

Co-directed and co-produced with David Scheckel

2019

Rural Access

2023

First

2026

New York, NY · b. 1998

About

Portrait + biography

Portrait

Bonnie “Billie” McKelvie is a New York-based multimedia artist. Her documentary practice follows the local patterns and sounds of work, play, and celebration.

She co-directed, shot, and edited Over the Board (2025, New York Short Documentary Film Festival), a portrait of the city’s club chess scene, and All Bottles Go to Heaven (2026), about New York’s canners and the redemption centers facing mass closures. She also shot and edited New York’s Strongest (2026), a portrait of a DSNY sanitation worker and bodybuilder. Both 2026 films were made in UnionDocs’ Collaborative Studio.

Her paintings have appeared in CULT Magazine, and she has project-managed photobooks for Blurring Books, including Brian Finke’s Bike Life, which documents New York’s street riders. She is the Programs and Marketing Manager at WORTHLESSSTUDIOS, where she oversees photo and sculpture residents and produces documentation of their practices.