WASHINGTON – The Howard University Department of Radio Television and Film is proud to present the contemporary drama, Pariah, featuring the award-winning cinematography of Howard alumnus Bradford Young (MFA ’04). Pariah is a feature-length expansion of writer/director Dee Rees’ award-winning 2007 short film by the same name.
Adepero Oduye, who previously starred in the short film, portrays Alike (pronounced ah-lee-kay), a 17-year-old African-American woman who lives with her family in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. Alike is quietly but firmly embracing her identity as a lesbian. Wondering how much she can confide in her family, Alike strives to get through adolescence with grace, humor, and tenacity – sometimes succeeding, sometimes not, but always moving forward.
Three years ago, producer Nekisa Cooper, lead actress Adepero Oduye, and Young came to Howard with the short film Pariah to gather support for the feature film and to recruit Howard Film students for the project. Young won “Best Cinematography” for Pariah at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. After receiving critical acclaim, Oduye and Cooper return this week to Howard for the advanced screening of the feature film Pariah.
For more than 30 years, Howard University has produced award-winning writers, directors and cinematographers. Young received his Masters of Fine Arts in 2004 from the School of Communications with a specialization in film production. In 2009, he was featured in Filmmaker Magazine as one of its “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
As a freelance documentary cinematographer, Young’s credits include, “Eventual Salvation,” directed by Dee Rees; “Restless City,” directed by Andrew Dosunmu; “Mississippi Damned,” directed by Tina Mabry; and “Entre Nos,” directed Paola Mendoza and Gloria La Morte.
To RSVP for the 8 p.m., Jan. 5 event at E Street Cinema, Washington, D.C., visit www.howard.edu/newsroom/20111223registrationform.html