Reid Davenport
Oakland, CA
Reid Davenport makes films about disability from an overtly political perspective. He was named to DOC NYC’s “40 Filmmakers Under 40” in 2020. His first feature film, I Didn’t See You There, dives into the historical and personal baggage that arises when a circus tent goes up outside his Oakland apartment. I Didn’t See You There received a production grant from California Humanities, Doc Society’s New Perspectives Grant, and was selected to be included in the 2020 IFP Week. Davenport was also named a 2020 Points North Fellow and a 2020 Bay Area Video Coalition MediaMaker Fellow in connection to the project. He is a 2017 TED Fellow and gave a TED Talk at the annual conference in Vancouver. His film awards include the Artistic Visions Award at the 2016 Big Sky Documentary Festival (A Cerebral Game). Davenport is a Visiting Teaching Professor at Syracuse University. He graduated from Stanford University in 2016 with a Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Film and Video.
Photo by Bret Hartman / TED
Film still from Reid Davenport’s I Didnt See You There.
Film still from Reid Davenport’s I Didnt See You There.
Film still from Reid Davenport’s I Didnt See You There.
Film still from Reid Davenport’s I Didnt See You There.
I Didn’t See You There
Reid Davenport makes films about disability from an overtly political perspective.
Artist BioSpurred by a circus tent that goes up outside his Oakland apartment, a disabled filmmaker connects the ostensibly antiquated institution of the Freak Show with his own life. Shot from a camera held by director Reid Davenport or mounted to his wheelchair, the film serves as an unequivocal rebuke to the norm of disabled people being seen and not heard. I Didn’t See You There expands on the tradition of point-of-view film toward a new aesthetic for disabled filmmakers, creating film that is disabled through the artist’s own embodiment.