NOMAD

Nomad is an anonymous Black artist who lives in Germantown and works to uplift his community through his art. Nomad has dealt with backlash and controversy surrounding his graffiti tags, like “Black is Beautiful” and “Stop Gentrifying This Jawn.” “Nomad” works to highlight his growing presence and powerful art.

As student filmmakers, we wanted to create a film that holds value beyond our campus community and we did that by stepping into one of Philadelphia’s most vibrant neighborhoods that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Nomad is an anonymous black artist who lives in Germantown and works to uplift his community through his art. Even though Germantown is a predominantly black neighborhood, Nomad has dealt with backlash and controversy surrounding his graffiti tags, like “Black is Beautiful” and “Stop Gentrifying This Jawn”. Matthew and Rasheed are two of Nomad’s friends and prominent community members of Germantown who are also actively involved in community activism. Our film works to highlight Nomad’s growing presence and powerful art alongside the beauty of Germantown as a neighborhood, and those that are working to preserve it.

Directed by Aby Isakov, Faryal Khan, and Reesha Gandhi

Directors bios:
Reesha Gandhi is an Indian filmmaker and an undergraduate student at Haverford College where she developed her passion for filmmaking. Her films aim to address underrepresented topics and communities to nurture inclusion, belongingness, and to inspire meaningful conversation.

Aby Isakov is a filmmaker and current junior undergrad student at Haverford College. Her area of study involves looking at the interrelationships between visual media, culture, and society. She hopes to continue creating films that capture beautiful vignettes of life while amplifying the stories that haven’t been in dialogue like they deserve to be.

Faryal Khan is a Pakistani filmmaker who is currently based in Seattle, Washington. She was first introduced to documentary through Haverford College’s VCAM as an undergraduate student. Her interests include using documentary as an archival tool to preserve individual and collective oral histories.

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