Free Skate

Garrett Bradley works in a variety of platforms most of which explore socio-economic injustice, human conflict, historical reflection, place-based adventure, and the beauty that is plainly in view.

A grantee of the 2019 Creative Capital Fellowship and 2017 Sundance Art of Nonfiction Fellowship and Field of Vision Fellowship, Bradley has been honored with grant support from Art Matters, The Ford Foundation and The Warhol Foundation. She has received numerous prizes - including the 2017 Sundance Jury Prize for the short film Alone, released in February of 2017 with The New York Times OpDocs. Alone was an Oscar Contender for short nonfiction filmmaking and was included in Academy Shortlist. Her work and feature-length projects have exhibited internationally at museums, festivals and platforms including The Getty Museum, The Hammer Museum, The Sundance Film Festival, The TribeCa Film Festival, The US Embassy Tel Aviv, The New York Times OpDocs, Field of Vision, the OWN Network for television series Queen Sugar, (episode 212) and more. 

Bradley is the co-founder of Creative Council, an artist lead after-school program aimed at developing strong college portfolios and applications for students attending public high schools in New Orleans. Creative Council is supported by The New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC). Bradley lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Filmmaker turned entrepreneur, Dennis Dortch, is a Sundance Film Festival Alumni and Gotham Award nominee for Breakthrough Director for his feature film debut, A Good Day to be Black & Sexy. A pioneer in the digital space, Dortch, led his team in launching the successful streaming platform and brand, BLACK&SEXY TV, producing and distributing content for a young, African-American audience. He also co-created, written and directed numerous hit digital series, including The Couple (picked up for Development by HBO) and Roomieloverfriends (licensed by BET) through his startup company.

In 1996 Dianne Houston transformed a forgotten Harlem Renaissance short story into the Academy Award nominated short film Tuesday Morning Ride, which she both wrote and directed. This nomination made Houston the first African American woman to be nominated for an Oscar in the Live Action Shorts category.

Houston has written and directed for television and film for two decades and counting. Born and raised in Washington DC, Houston left home at age 16 to work in experimental theater in New York City with such theater greats as Liz Swados, Joseph Papp, Joe Chaikin, Peter Brook, La Mama, Woodie King, and Ntozake Shange. This diverse background, and love of literature fuels her unique voice as a storyteller, whether as director or writer.

She has developed projects for SHOWTIME , NBC, HBO, ABC, CBS, FOX, A&E, TRIBECA FILMS, PARTICIPANT FILMS, UNIVERSAL, SONY, PARAMOUNT, HALLMARK, and HARPO PRODUCTIONS. She is currently co-executive producer for Empire.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Sierra Leonean-American Filmmaker Nikyatu's films have screened at festivals nationally and internationally. With a BA from Duke University and an MFA from NYU's Tisch Grad Film school, she's earned various awards including NYU’s Spike Lee Fellowship Award, the Princess Grace Narrative film grant and Director’s Guild of America Honorable Mentions. Three of her shorts were acquired by and aired on HBO, her most recent being Flowers, which she co-wrote and co-directed.  

Nikyatu's feature screenplay Free The Town was one of 12 projects invited to participate in Sundance Institute’s inaugural Diverse Writers Workshop. Additionally FTT was hand selected for Africa’s most prestigious Film Market, the 2013 Durban Film Mart and one of 5 narrative films selected for Film Independent's Fast Track.

Her latest film Suicide By Sunlight: a project funded by THROUGH HER LENS sponsored by the Tribeca Film Institute and Chanel, made its debut at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and is currently touring the festival circuit. She is in development on the original series based on Suicide By Sunlight. 

Nikyatu is an Assistant Professor at George Mason University where she teaches Screenwriting and Directing. 

Nijla Mu'min is a writer and filmmaker from the East Bay Area. Her work is informed by poetry, photography, fiction, and dance. Named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017, she tells stories about black girls and women who find themselves between worlds and identities.

Her short films have screened at festivals and venues across the country. Her filmmaking and screenwriting have been supported by the Sundance Institute, IFP, Film Independent, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, Women In Film LA, and the Princess Grace Foundation. In 2011, she worked as a Production Assistant on Ava DuVernay’s film, MIDDLE OF NOWHERE of Nowhere. In 2014, she was selected for the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive, and she was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the 2014 Urbanworld Film Festival, for her script NOOR. Nijla attended the 2017 Sundance Institute Sound and Music Design Lab at Skywalker Ranch for JINN. Her short film DREAM was acquired by Issa Rae Productions (INSECURE, HBO) for online streaming in 2017. Her writing appears in the critically acclaimed book, LOVE INSHALLAH: THE SECRET LOVE LIVES OF AMERICAN MUSLIM WOMEN, and she's also written film and cultural criticism for VICE, Shadow and Act on the Indiewire Network, Bitch Media, KQED, Gawker, and The Los Angeles Times.

Her debut feature film, JINN, starring Zoe Renee, Kelvin Harrison Jr. (LUCE, WAVES) and Simone Missick (Netflix’s LIKE CAGE), premiered in narrative competition at the 2018 South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, where she won the Special Jury Recognition Award for Screenwriting. In 2018, she directed an episode of Ava DuVernay's critically-acclaimed television series "QUEEN SUGAR. In June 2018, she won the Best Screenplay award for JINN at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and later won Best Feature at Blackstar Film Festival, among other honors. JINN, a New York Times Critic’s pick, was released in November 2018 by Orion Classics, and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. In 2019, she wrote for the upcoming Apple series SWAGGER, received the Shadow & Act Rising Creator Award, the MPAC Media Award for Courage and Conscience, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She directed an episode of HBO’s INSECURE season four in October 2019, and was a writer on Starz upcoming show, BLINDSPOTTING. In 2020, she directed the episode of SWAGGER that she wrote, and also wrote and directed a short film for Netflix, entitled BLACK PROM. She is currently in development on her second feature film, MOSSWOOD PARK. She is a 2013 dual-degree graduate of CalArts MFA Film Directing and Writing Programs.

Born in Haiti and raised in small town USA, Numa Perrier is an actress, filmmaker, and artist. Her feature film directorial debut, Jezebel, premiered at SXSW 2019 landing on The Hollywood Reporter's Critics Choice list. Soon after she joined the ranks of the all female directing team on Queen Sugar. She is currently in development on her follow up feature, Blood Mother, via her boutique production arm House of Numa.