Moon Molson

2017 PEW FELLOW
Updated
9 Jun 2017

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Moon Molson, 2017 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

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Moon Molson, 2017 Pew Fellow. Photo by Ryan Collerd.

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Moon Molson on set. Photo by Rolando Sanchez.

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Moon Molson. Photo by Rolando Sanchez.

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Moon Molson on set. Photo by Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris.

“I am more of a fabulist than a realist. What I love even more than dialogues crafted from lyrical street language are films that express what David Lynch calls ‘the spirit of experimentation.'”

Moon Molson’s films portray the stories of people of color, capturing the humor and lyricism of, in his words, “the language of the streets." Molson’s work examines urban masculinity, legacies of trauma, and family dynamics as he strives to “strike a balance between gritty realism, vernacular lyricism, stark humor, and the surrealism of dreams and hallucinations,” he says. His short films The Bravest, The Boldest (2014), Crazy Beats Strong Every Time (2011), and Pop Foul (2007) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and the Reel Shorts Jury Award at SXSW Film Festival. A 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, Molson has received grants from New York State Council on the Arts and the Jerome Grant Foundation. He was selected as a participant in the 2016 Fox Directors Lab and 2015 Warner Brothers Television Directors’ Workshop. Molson was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2007. He holds an MFA from Columbia University and is assistant professor of film and media arts at Temple University and filmmaker in residence at Maryland Institute College of Art.