Garrett Bradley (filmmaker) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Garrett Bradley
Born	1986 (age 38–39) New York City, U.S.
Education	Smith College, UCLA
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	2014–present
Notable work	Alone; America; Time
Parent(s)	Peter Bradley Suzanne McClelland
Awards	American Academy of Arts and Letters: Art, Arts and Letters Awards (2022); Sundance Film Festival; Best Director, US Documentary Competition (2020); Prix de Rome (2019); Creative Capital Grantee (2019)

Garrett Bradley (born 1986) is an American filmmaker. She directs short films, full-length movies, documentaries, and TV shows. She is known for mixing different film styles. Her movies often show important everyday moments in people's lives.

Early Life and Education

Garrett Bradley was born in New York City in 1986. Her parents, Suzanne McClelland and Peter Bradley, were both artists. They divorced when she was two years old.

When she was sixteen, Bradley made her first film. In this film, she interviewed her parents about art and their divorce. She said this film helped her ask questions she felt too shy to ask without a camera. She called the film Be-Bop Fidelity. It won an award at her high school's film festival.

Bradley went to Smith College and studied religion, graduating in 2007. Later, she earned a special degree in directing from UCLA in 2012. She also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Before becoming a filmmaker, she worked as a photographer for concerts at Central Park's SummerStage.

Career Highlights

Garrett Bradley's first full-length movie was Below Dreams. It was shown at the 2014 Tribeca Festival. The film followed three people moving from north to south to start new lives. Critics praised Bradley's unique filmmaking style. She found most of the actors for Below Dreams through Craigslist. Many of these actors later appeared in her other films.

In 2017, Bradley helped start Creative Council. This was an after-school program for high school students in New Orleans. It helped them create strong art portfolios for college applications. The program was supported by The New Orleans Video Access Center.

Notable Films

Alone (2017)

Bradley's 13-minute documentary Alone came out in 2017. Like her later film Time, it looks at how people are affected by being in prison in the United States. Bradley has said she tells these stories from a "Black southern, feminist perspective."

The short film features Aloné Watts, a young woman whose boyfriend is in prison. The film shows Aloné's daily life as she thinks about her future with him. Fox Rich, who is the main person in Bradley's film Time, also appears in Alone. Alone was first shown at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. It won an award there for nonfiction short films. The New York Times also released it.

America (2019)

Bradley's 2019 project, America, is both a film and an art installation. It has two different versions. America was first shown at the New Orleans Museum of Art. It then became part of Bradley's first traveling art show, Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody. This show traveled to several museums, including the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

The short film America was called "the most original film" by one critic at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It was also shown for a week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. This was a special event called Garrett Bradley's America: A Journey Through Time. It included films that inspired Bradley and a look back at her past work.

Time (2020)

In 2020, Bradley released her first full-length documentary, Time. This film was nominated for over 57 awards and won 20 of them. It was nominated for an Academy Award. It also won the Best Director Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Time was included in Time Magazine’s list of "25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance." Former President Barack Obama also listed it as one of his favorite films of 2020.

Other Works

In 2021, Netflix released Naomi Osaka. This was a three-part TV series directed by Bradley. The series follows professional tennis player Naomi Osaka for two years during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Filming took place in America, Japan, Haiti, and Australia. Bradley even gave Osaka a camcorder to film some of her own footage for the series. It shows what life is like for a famous athlete dealing with a lot of pressure.

In 2022, Bradley had her first art show with Lisson Gallery. This show featured her short film Safe. This film is the second in a series that also includes AKA. These films explore the inner and outer lives of women. Also in 2022, Bradley worked with artist Arthur Jafa. They created a split-screen film installation called a Negro, a Lim-o. This piece used old materials, conversations, and new footage related to an art gallery called "JAM."

Filmography

Film and Television Projects