Kahlil Joseph (filmmaker)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Kahlil Davis, known professionally as Kahlil Joseph (born 1981), is an American
filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...
,
music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...
director, and
video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...
ist. Joseph is known for creating "intellectually and emotionally dense short films" that center on the experience of
African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. He was a 2017 Artadia Awardee.


Early life

Kahlil Joseph was born in Seattle, Washington in 1981. Joseph's father Keven Davis was a prominent sports and entertainment attorney, and his younger brother Noah Davis was a painter and museum curator. Joseph attended
Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...
but did not graduate. Joseph's own approach to filmmaking was influenced by his study of the work of
Apichatpong Weerasethakul Apichatpong Weerasethakul (; ; , born 16 July 1970) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, film producer and Professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong h ...
, the Thai director of experimental films.


Career

Joseph got his start in the entertainment industry working as an intern for a post-production house in Los Angeles. He later began working as a Production Assistant on a shoot for music video director
Hype Williams Harold "Hype" Williams (born August 1, 1970) is an American music video and film director, film producer, and screenwriter. Early life Williams was born in Queens. He is of mixed African-American and Honduran descent. He attended Adelphi Univ ...
. In 2012, Joseph wrote and directed his first short film, ''The Mirror Between Us'', and in 2013, he gained recognition for writing and directing a short film for
Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), better known as Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker, and rapper. He has released seven critically acclaimed albums: ''1983'' (2006), ''Los Angeles'' (2008), '' Co ...
’ song, ''
Until the Quiet Comes ''Until the Quiet Comes'' is the fourth studio album by American electronic music producer Flying Lotus, released on September 26, 2012 by Warp Records. Flying Lotus was inspired to create the album by psychedelic music, Rhythm in Sub-Saharan Af ...
''. The film was awarded the Short Film Special Jury Prize at the 2013
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...
. Joseph has since directed videos for artists including
Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...
,
FKA Twigs Tahliah Debrett Barnett (born 16 January 1988), known professionally as FKA Twigs (stylized as FKA twigs), is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and dancer. She was a backup dancer for numerous musicians, and made her musica ...
, and Beyonce. In 2019, Joseph premiered his acclaimed video installation, ''BLKNWS'' at the
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
in the main exhibition. It has since been shown in many different formats and exhibitions, including a theatrical screening at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. In 2022, it was announced that Joseph would direct an upcoming feature adaptation of ''BLKNWS'' for entertainment distribution company
A24 A24 Films LLC, commonly referred to as A24, is an American Privately held company, independent entertainment company that specializes in film and television production, as well as film distribution. The studio is based in Manhattan. The company ...
.


Commercial work

Joseph previously worked as an assistant to the photographer Melodie McDaniel and at the commercial film production company Directors Bureau in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. He has directed a commercial for British telecom company O2 and a short film for the luxury brand Kenzo. Joseph has directed music videos for Blvck Spvde(Black Spade),
Flying Lotus Steven Ellison (born October 7, 1983), better known as Flying Lotus or sometimes FlyLo, is an American record producer, DJ, filmmaker, and rapper. He has released seven critically acclaimed albums: ''1983'' (2006), ''Los Angeles'' (2008), '' Co ...
,
Shabazz Palaces Shabazz Palaces is an American hip hop group from Seattle led by Ishmael Butler a.k.a. Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly of jazz rap group Digable Planets). Much of Butler's work as Shabazz Palaces has been made in collaboration with multi ...
,
Sampha Sampha Lahai Sisay (born 16 November 1988) is a British singer, songwriter, musician and record producer from Morden, South London. Sampha has collaborated with Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, SBTRKT, Jessie Ware, Alicia Keys, Gorillaz, ...
, and
Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, becoming the first music ...
among others. Joseph was the original director approached by
Beyoncé Knowles Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most culturally significant figu ...
to direct the companion film to her 2016 concept album ''
Lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink. There are many varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In some parts of the world, lemonade refers to an un-carbonated, traditionally, homemade drink, using lemon juice, water, and a sw ...
''. Joseph and Knowles jointly received a BET Award for Video Director of the Year for the track " Sorry". Knowles eventually remixed much of the film with a number of different directors, and has since allowed Joseph's version of ''Lemonade'' to be screened only at art museums.


Museum and gallery exhibitions and commissions

In 2014, contemporary artist
Kara Walker Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, printmaker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores Race (classification of human beings), race, gender, human sexuality, sexual ...
curated the ICA Philadelphia exhibition ''Ruffneck Constructivists'' and included Joseph's 2011 music video for Shabazz Palaces ''Black Up'' and the 2012 short film ''Until the Quiet Comes'' for the titular Flying Lotus song. In 2015 The Underground Museum presented the exhibition ''Oracle'', displaying works by Joseph and his contemporaries Henry Taylor, Kandis Williams, and Ruby Neri alongside rarities from The Jeremiah Cole Collection of Arts d’Afrique. Joseph's short film ''m.A.A.d.'' debuted here for the first time as a double screen projection, and again in the 2016 exhibition ''Kahlil Joseph: Double Conscience'' at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. However, the 2015 exhibition ''Young Blood: Noah Davis, Kahlil Joseph, The Underground Museum'' at the
Frye Art Museum The Frye Art Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1952 to house the collection of Charles and Emma Frye and has since grown to include rotating temporary exhibi ...
in Seattle, WA, was Joseph's first museum-scale exhibition. In 2017,
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...
commissioned Joseph to create a short film, ''Black Mary'', to debut as part of a special film installation in the final week of the exhibition '' Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power''. The six-minute film was inspired by the photography of Roy DeCarava, and features the singer Alice Smith, among others. Joseph first presented ''Fly Paper'' in his 2017 solo exhibition ''Kahlil Joseph: Shadow Play'' at New York's
New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum at 235 Bowery, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-nam ...
. The film was commissioned by the New Museum in collaboration with The Vinyl Factory, a London-based enterprise. In 2018 ''Fly Paper'' made its European debut at The Store X Berlin, and later that year it was shown in London as part of ''Strange Days: Memories of the Future'', presented by the New Museum and The Store X in partnership with The Vinyl Factory. ''One Day at a Time: Kahlil Joseph's Fly Paper'' was the final exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art's Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, which closed in 2019, and where ''Fly Paper'' was shown for the first time on the West Coast.


Filmography


Influences

Throughout his career, Kahlil Joseph has been very open about the artists he draws inspiration from. He frequently makes direct references to other art in his work and pays tribute to other artists through his work. His acclaimed short film, ''Until The Quiet Comes'', was influenced by the work of
Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (, ; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Soviet film director and screenwriter of Russian origin. He is widely considered one of the greatest directors in cinema history. Works by Andrei Tarkovsky, His films e ...
and
Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...
. His short, ''Belhaven Meridian'', pays homage to Charles Burnett’s 1977 film Killer of Sheep.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Joseph, Kahlil 21st-century African-American artists American music video directors Living people 1981 births 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 21st-century American artists