Maori Karmael Holmes (LTA ’06, ACG ’06, ACG ’05) will lead a Q&A discussion during the event, In Conversation With Bradford Young, Cinematographer of RESTLESS CITY, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, MISSISSIPPI DAMNED and PARIAH. Wednesday April 11 form 6:30pm – 8:00pm at PhillyCAM, 699 Ranstead Street. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and is first come, first served. Please RSVP at bradfordyoungconversation.eventbrite.com.
ABOUT RESTLESS CITY
RESTLESS CITY (opens May 4, 2012 at AMC/Loews Cherry Hill) tells the story of an African immigrant surviving on the fringes of New York City where music is
his passion, life is a hustle, and falling in love is his greatest risk.
Djibril is a young African immigrant whose life can only go upward. He has endured much travail by the time he arrives in New York. When he has lived in the City for a while, he begins to believe that he can achieve his dreams. He wants to be a musician, a pop star, and one- day return to Africa where his mother and father still toil for a meager living.
By day, Djibril sells merchandise on Canal Street for a small income that keeps him going, but he doesn’t want to do this forever. He continuously seeks ways to succeed as a singer. He has made many acquaintances on Canal Street. One of them is Bekay, a complex man whom Djibril finds difficult to trust. Bekay is a shady character who sells bootlegged cds to Djibril to sell, and also runs a secret
brothel. It is in Bekay’s brothel that Djibril sees the beautiful Trini for the first time.
BRADFORD YOUNG (Cinematographer)
Bradford Young graduated from Howard University, where he studied under the tutelage of filmmaker Haile Gerima.
In addition to RESTLESS CITY, Young’s cinematography credits include Middle of Nowhere, Mississippi Damned, Entre Nos and Pariah, for which he earned the 2011 Sundance Film Festival’s Excellence in Cinematography Award for U.S. Dramatic Competition. .
He was cited as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2009.
MAORI KARMAEL HOLMES BIO
Maori received her BA in History from American University in 1999. Her senior thesis “Ready to Die” explored the implications of media and oral history in the so-called ‘battle’ between East Coast and West Coast rap artists in the mid-1990s. She began researching the paper as an intern with the Program in African American Culture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.
She has taught documentary at Scribe Video Center, been a media artist-in-residence at West Philadelphia High School, and served as an adjunct at Villanova University. Her costume designs have been featured in the films “Just Old Friends” (dir. Wan-Ching Ke), “In Between” (dir. Narcel G. Reedus), and the multi-media opera “Violet Fire” (dir. Terry O’Reilly). She has written for Alternet.org, Savoy Magazine, Trace, Philadelphia Style, Philadelphia City Paper, Philadelphia Weekly, and Blackamericaweb.com.
Her most recent professional positions include: communications director at the Leeway Foundation, full-time lecturer in the department of Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Mass Media at Temple University, director of community arts partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania, and coordinator for the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association. She has volunteered with a number of organizations and served as president of the board of the Black Lily Film & Music Festival and as a curator for the Philadelphia International Film and Video Festival. In 2008, Maori received a Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in Media Arts, a Womens Way Local Honoree award, and the Black Lily Visionary Leader Award.
