Bruce Nelson is an independent art exhibit curator, documentary filmmaker and published author. His work as a curator of museum exhibitions and documentarian focuses heavily on his experience of living in the once segregated Washington Escobedo neighborhood. He creates African American content museum exhibitions to rent to museum and produces “Pop Up Exhibitions” in alternative spaces.  His method of curation uses community input as its foundation to thereby reflect and celebrate community members of this often-overlooked neighborhood. Nelson’s film practice has developed to be in conversation with compatible exhibitions without either relying on one another for context.   Nelson won a Telly Award for his first short film, Tales of Tobacco. His short film Raglin Tales was an official selection of the Arizona Black Film Showcase, Phoenix Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, Mid-Atlantic Black Film Festival and Long Island International Film Festival. Nelson’s documentary North Town was an official selection of the Silicon Beach Film Festival, the International Black & Diversity Film Festival, the Jerome Indie Film & Music Festival, the On-Line American Film Awards Festival and the Sir Charles Darwin Film Festival (UK) recently awarded Exceptional Merit from the Docs without Borders Film Festival. Nile Theater: An Oasis in the Desert is Nelson’s second documentary and is an official selection of the Jerome Independent Film & Music Festival, Long Beach Indie International Film Festival, the Chandler International Film Festival (Best documentary short award) and still making its way through the film festival circuit. Nelson was awarded a Ripple Project Grant from NEDCO for Nile Theater documentary.  His third documentary Gospel Radio Man was awarded best short documentary at the Christian Film Festival and is an official selection of the Afro Film Festival “Ananse,” (Cali, Valle) St Louis Black Film Festival, Hollywood Black Film Festival, The Houston Black Film Festival, Tupelo Film Festival, The Columbus International Black Film Festival, and the Twin Cities Black Film festival.

Bruce’s first exhibition; Veterans of Washington-Escobedo was staged at the Mesa Public Library in 2016-17. His second exhibit Games & Toys of was Washington-Escobedo Community was a small installation at the i.d.e.a Museum 2018 as part their Artful Play! Games & Toys.   Bruce’s Black Dolls: Beautiful or Grotesque? Exhibit recently ran for 6-weeks at the historic Carver Cultural Center in Phoenix, AZ.  His two documentary films North Town and Gospel Radio Man were part of the The Arizona Heritage Center Museum’s "A Place For All People" Exhibition which was staged January 2019 through December 2019. His book Hallelujah Hats s and Porch Stories a collection of short stories is available on Amazon.

IMDB Page:  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625205/

Amazon authors page: https://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Nelson/e/B085DH8NT5?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1633554248&sr=8-1