THE GOSPEL

A music-driven short film presented as a visual prelude to Alicia Keys’ sixth studio album, HERE. Keys pays tribute to the communities that raised her in four slice-of-life segments depicting the coming of age experience in New York City.

Director’s Bio
A.V. ROCKWELL is an award-winning screenwriter and director from Queens, New York. Hailed as a “rising indie filmmaker” by Entertainment Weekly, her work has been celebrated for its brutal yet poetically humanized depictions of urban life and a distinctive voice that slyly addresses issues of race, family, identity, and systematic oppression.

Rockwell studied filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where she was awarded full scholarship as a Dean’s Fellow.  She was later handpicked to direct The Gospel, a music-driven short film commissioned by singer/songwriter Alicia Keys.  Presented as a visual prelude to Keys’ sixth studio album Here, it would go on to premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, be named a pop critic pick on The New York Times’ column, The Playlist and receive a Clio Music Award for Film.

Rockwell has received Tribeca Film Institute and CHANEL’s Through Her Lens production grant, a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship for the Arts and she was also highlighted in the prestigious Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase. Most recently, she was awarded a Sundance Institute Feature Film Fellowship.

Plays in

MATINEE TWO

The Nitehawk Shorts Festival’s MATINEE TWO screening includes eight films that imbue life and death as explored in stories about finite mortality, complex relationships, and exceeding expectations in an oppressive world.