Garrett Bradley
(b. 1986)Garrett Bradley weaves together cinematic and documentary video styles to create films that reflect real-life stories and everyday themes.
Biography
Garrett Bradley’s filmmaking is inspired by real-life stories from people in her hometown of New York City; Los Angeles, where she went to school; and New Orleans, where she is currently based.
The daughter of abstract painters Suzanne McClelland and Peter Bradley, Bradley made her first movie with a camcorder when she was sixteen. The film, Be-Bop Fidelity, won Bradley her first award at the Bridge Film Festival, which was run by her high school, the Brooklyn Friends School. She received her BA from Smith College in 2007, an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2012, and attended the artist residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Bradley debuted her film Below Dreams at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. Inspired by the Museum of Modern Art’s discovery of footage from the film Lime Kiln Club Field Day, the earliest feature film with an all-Black cast, Bradley filmed three people in reverse migration—from north to south—using actors found on Craigslist. In 2017, Bradley cofounded Creative Council, an artist-led after-school program with the aim of helping New Orleans high-school students develop strong portfolios for college. In 2018 she shot the short documentary film Alone. Her interest in the Lime Kiln Club Field Day footage and that period of filmmaking led to her production of the multichannel video installation America in 2019.
Bradley’s debut documentary feature-length film, Time (2020), was nominated for over fifty-seven awards and won twenty, including an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary (Feature) and a 2020 Peabody Award. Bradley became the first Black woman director to win Best Director at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Bradley lives and works in New Orleans. Projects: Garrett Bradley opened in November 2020 at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition was part of a multiyear partnership between the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Modern Art, and MoMA PS1. The Studio Museum acquired Bradley’s work in 2023.
Garrett Bradley
(b. 1986)Garrett Bradley weaves together cinematic and documentary video styles to create films that reflect real-life stories and everyday themes.
Biography
Garrett Bradley’s filmmaking is inspired by real-life stories from people in her hometown of New York City; Los Angeles, where she went to school; and New Orleans, where she is currently based.
The daughter of abstract painters Suzanne McClelland and Peter Bradley, Bradley made her first movie with a camcorder when she was sixteen. The film, Be-Bop Fidelity, won Bradley her first award at the Bridge Film Festival, which was run by her high school, the Brooklyn Friends School. She received her BA from Smith College in 2007, an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2012, and attended the artist residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Bradley debuted her film Below Dreams at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. Inspired by the Museum of Modern Art’s discovery of footage from the film Lime Kiln Club Field Day, the earliest feature film with an all-Black cast, Bradley filmed three people in reverse migration—from north to south—using actors found on Craigslist. In 2017, Bradley cofounded Creative Council, an artist-led after-school program with the aim of helping New Orleans high-school students develop strong portfolios for college. In 2018 she shot the short documentary film Alone. Her interest in the Lime Kiln Club Field Day footage and that period of filmmaking led to her production of the multichannel video installation America in 2019.
Bradley’s debut documentary feature-length film, Time (2020), was nominated for over fifty-seven awards and won twenty, including an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary (Feature) and a 2020 Peabody Award. Bradley became the first Black woman director to win Best Director at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
Bradley lives and works in New Orleans. Projects: Garrett Bradley opened in November 2020 at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition was part of a multiyear partnership between the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Modern Art, and MoMA PS1. The Studio Museum acquired Bradley’s work in 2023.