ELEGANCE BRATTON & CHESTER ALGERNAL
“I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude that I get to speak on a microphone that Martin Scorsese has spoken on and Pedro Almodóvar has spoken on,” said filmmaker Elegance Bratton during the New York Film Festival screening of his critically acclaimed movie The Inspection.’ The film, which stars Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union, pulls from times in Bratton’s real life. At 16, he was kicked out of his home and was homeless before joining the Marines. While in the military, Bratton developed his skills with a camera both in video and photography before graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Encouraged to tell his story by his partner Chester Alegernal (who serves as an EP on the film), Bratton said, “he has envisioned all of America watching in the movie theater, bearing witness to an example of Black LGBTQ+ excellence from which future generations can draw strength and power.” —K.M.