Directed by Alex Rappoport • Documentary • With Peter Bradley • 2024 • 86 minutes
When filmmaker Alex Rappoport met then-79-year-old abstract artist Peter Bradley in early 2020, Bradley hadn't sold many paintings or had a major show in over four decades - yet he still painted every day in a shipping-container studio heated by a wood stove, no matter what the weather. Over time, Rappoport recorded Bradley's fascinating life story, which occupies a unique and seemingly overlooked place in art history.
At once an intimate portrait and a study of the creative process, WITH PETER BRADLEY is situated entirely at the artist’s rural home and studio, unfolding over changing seasons. The sole figure on screen, Bradley narrates his life in a series of unscripted conversations: often provocative, sometimes bitter, and full of surprises. Bradley’s confidence and insistence on what makes a picture a complete picture speaks to the mysterious yet intuitive nature of his creativity. WITH PETER BRADLEY is a celebration of artmaking, resilience, and the creative contributions of Black artists to American life. It focuses a long-overdue lens on Bradley and shines a light on his rightful place in the ongoing movement toward racial equity in the arts and our society.
Up Next in African-American Docs
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Gil Scott-Heron: Black Wax
Directed by Robert Mugge • Documentary • With Gil Scott-Heron • 1983 • 79 minutes
BLACK WAX is a musical-political entertainment film produced and directed by Robert Mugge. It centers on the late African American poet-singer-songwriter Gil Scott-Heron - the man Melody Maker called "the most dang...
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The Five Demands
Directed by Greta Schiller and Andrea Weiss • Documentary • 2023 • 74 minutes
THE FIVE DEMANDS is a riveting story about the student strike that changed the face of higher education forever. In April 1969, a small group of Black and Puerto Rican students shut down the City College of New York, a...
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Killing Time
Directed by Fronza Woods • Drama • 1979 • 9 minutes
KILLING TIME, an offbeat, wryly humorous look at the dilemma of a would-be suicide unable to find the right outfit to die in, examines the personal habits, socialization, and complexities of life that keep us going. Part of the mediamaking move...
