Khalik Allah

Khalik Allah (born 1985) is an American filmmaker and photographer. His 2015 documentary film Field Niggas and his 2017 book Souls Against the Concrete depict people who inhabit the notorious Harlem corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in New York City. His film Black Mother depicts people on the island of Jamaica. "He favours visual portraits of people on the street – filming their faces for several seconds as they pose as if for a still camera." Khalik lives on Long Island and is a Nominee member of Magnum Photos.

Life and work Khalik was born in Brookhaven, New York. His mother is Jamaican and his father is Iranian. He grew up in Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, but moved between Queens and Harlem throughout his childhood. His parents met at university in Bristol, England.

He started making movies at age 19 with a Hi-8 video camera. and a member of Five-Percent Nation. It took four years to make.

In June 2020 he became a Nominee member of Magnum Photos.

Field Niggas

Described by The Village Voice as "more a woozy experience you press through than an ethnographic study you watch, Khalik Allah's hour-long non-narrative street-life doc Field Niggas stands as the most striking sort of urban portraiture." The film comprises observational footage of, and interviews and discussions with, people at night around the notorious Harlem street corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in New York City. Its subjects are predominantly African American, and harassment from the police; people with "a hunger to have their voices heard". The police are also portrayed.

The film's title is taken from "Message to the Grass Roots", a public speech delivered by human rights activist Malcolm X in 1963, "extolling the spirit of rebellion among outdoor slaves." filmed using a handheld camera. Apart from the cinematography, it includes surveillance footage of the strangulation of Eric Garner as well as the overdubbed sound of field hollers by a 1950s chain gang.

Khalik used slow-speed color film, usually intended for daylight photography, for its high contrast, with a 35 mm SLR camera from 1971. Because of photographing at night using available light, he used a fast manual focus normal lens at a large aperture (hence the shallow depth of field).

Black Mother Black Mother was made in Jamaica, its subjects are holy men, sex workers, beggars, hawkers and children. It was made in the same fashion as Field Niggas: "visual portraits of people on the street – filming their faces for several seconds as they pose as if for a still camera" – with a soundtrack out of synch with the images.

Khalik used a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3 digital camera, and Super 8, Super 16 and Bolex film cameras.

Publications Souls Against the Concrete. Austin: University of Texas, 2017. .

Films Documentary films Popa Wu: A 5% Story (2010) – 1 hr Antonyms of Beauty (2013) – 27 mins Field Niggas (2015) – 1 hr Black Mother (2018) – 1 hr 17 mins IWOW: I Walk On Water (2020) – 3 hrs 20 mins

Short films Urban Rashomon Khamaica

Music videos The Razah Code Underground Hip-Hop Chapter 1

Films with contributions by Khalik Lemonade (2016) – 46 mins, about Beyoncé, produced by Good Company and Jonathan Lia, premiered on HBO – Khalik was second unit director and cinematographer