Photographer, filmmaker and cinematographer
Rex Miller was born and raised in New York City, where he started commuting to school from Astoria, Queens to Manhattan on the subway at age 8, which he’s sure honed his love of observing human nature, not to mention danger and adventure.
A documentary and editorial photographer for the past 20 years, his clients have included ABC News, American Express, Atlantic Records, Calvin Klein, CBS, Forbes, John Kennedy, Jr., McDonald’s, Musician, Newsweek, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Nickelodeon, the Robin Hood Foundation, Rolling Stone, Spin, Sony Music, and Time.
In 1997 Miller completed “All The Blues Gone”, a hardcover book/CD package documenting Mississippi blues culture. “All The Blues Gone” has been widely exhibited in the U.S. and overseas. The book and CD were the result of a long-standing commitment to the region and its music.
In 1991, Rex co-founded and served as Director (for 5 years) of the Delta Blues Education Fund, a non-profit organization that employed local Mississippi musicians to teach area children the history and techniques of delta blues music. In 1998, the students of the program were invited to the White House, where they performed for President Bill Clinton. To promote the project, he produced the first New York City Delta Blues Festival, in 1996.
In 2004, Miller completed directing and producing the Documentary Short film (30 mins), I’M WALKIN’: A Journey Through Parchman. The film chronicles the 10-year incarceration of Mitchell Pendelton, a Chicago-born blues musician, at Mississippi’s infamous Parchman Penitentiary, a former plantation for runaway slaves. The story is told through the words and music of Pendleton, and the black and white imagery of Miller’s photographs and cinematography. In 2005, “I’m Walkin’” received an award for “Best Photography” from the Honolulu International Film Festival, and a “Special Mention” from the Philadelphia Documentary and Fiction Festival.
His second doc short, GULU STORIES, is a collection of vignettes, an intimate portrait of life on the ground in Northern Uganda, that collectively relays the pain and suffering– but also the endurance–of the people of northern Uganda through 22 years of war. GULU STORIES has been screened by UNICEF, Amnesty International, and the International Criminal Court, and is distributed by INDIEPIX.
His documentary feature film, “SOMAY KU: A Uganda Tennis Story“, tells the story of Patrick Olobo, Uganda’s top-ranked tennis player, as he struggles to leave behind a devastating civil war, finding a new set of obstacles after emigrating to the US. The film premiered on The Tennis Channel in November 2008, where it screened 40 times over the next year. It was awarded “Best Documentary” at the Malibu Film Festival (2008) and screened at the prestigious Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (Durham, NC), the Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington, NC) and the South African Int’l Film Festival (Pietermaritzburg). It was recently awarded “Best Editing, Documentary” at the Washington DC Spirit Awards for Film/Video. www.somayku.com
In addition to corporate and advertising projects, Miller is currently shooting the feature documentary PRIVATE VIOLENCE (on domestic violence) for the filmmaker Cynthia Hill; he is shooting and editing 2 feature docs for Dr. Steven Channing, titled “I’m Movin’ On”, an intimate portrait of Judge Elaine Bushfan of Durham, and “Remembering Little Rock”, which looks at the legacy of the Civil Rights movement there. He is currently in pre-production for two projects for The Tennis Channel.
A nationally ranked tennis player and competitive kickboxer, Miller ran Rexsport for 5 years, a Personal Coaching business, training highly motivated and competitive junior and adult athletes in tennis, thai boxing and motivational techniques. He currently lives and works in Durham, North Carolina, and will soon celebrate the second birthday of his daughter Sadie, another Hill-Miller production.
View more of Rex Miller’s work www.rexpix.net/
Thou Art: Williamsburg 