With Peter Bradley

Seventy-nine years old and largely overlooked since the 1970s, abstract painter Peter Bradley reflects on his life and shares his artistic process on the cusp of his rediscovery. Unfolding over changing seasons against the backdrop of his shipping container art studio, Bradley expresses himself frankly in a series of tender, revealing, and funny monologues. The effect is a moving portrait of an artist devoted to his work, despite decades of disappointment in an industry historically stacked against Black artists. Attesting to mid-twentieth-century art world pomp and prejudice, Bradley recounts the blatant racism he encountered as an emerging exhibiting artist, as well as his years mingling among elites as an art dealer at Perls Galleries in New York City. Jazz tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson’s classy score seamlessly fuses with Bradley’s witty repartee throughout. This is an intimate portrait of a human being as well as of an artist, where frustrations and grouses only add more color to Bradley’s forthcoming personality and color-saturated life. After decades of being ignored, viewers are left to suspect that perhaps Bradley in his twilight years is only now arriving at his peak.

“An engaging, inspiring chronicle of the life and career of Peter Bradley... It is riveting. Rappoport’s collaboration with the artist is startling.” —Film Threat

“I love this film. ... A magnificent look at the creative process.” —Unseen Films

"WITH PETER BRADLEY reveals that being an outsider is also the foundation of the artist’s vision and discipline, reflected in his love of nature and solitude. The film’s serene cinematography and editorial pacing capture all of this with eloquent understatement and warmth.” —Charles Burnett, film director/producer/writer