Bridgett M. Davis is a novelist, essayist, independent filmmaker, educator, and curator. A graduate of Spelman College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, she spent her early career at a nonprofit media center in New York Center, where she produced some of her earlier works. In 1994, Davis wrote, produced, and directed Naked Acts, a feature-length drama exploring a Black woman’s feelings about her own sexuality and body image. The film premiered theatrically at the Thalia Theater in Manhattan in 1998 and broke the establishment’s box office records over its four-week run.

Beyond her film work, Davis’s reviews and essays have been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, O: Oprah Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and The Detroit Free Press. She has published the novels Shifting through Neutral (2004) and Into the Go-Slow (2014), in addition to the New York Times Editors’ Choice memoir The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers (2019). Davis serves as a Professor of Journalism and Writing Professions at Baruch College, CUNY, where she facilitates writing workshops for women and junior faculty of color.

The Bridgett Davis Naked Acts Collection gathers production materials, film elements, and press coverage related to Naked Acts and its various screenings from 1994 through 2009. The collection includes Davis’s journal entries about the production, scripts, and set photographs of cast and crew. The film elements include the 35mm master positive, mono audio tracks, and interpositives and internegatives used in creating the film. Promotional materials include advertisements, postcards, and press releases, as well as news articles and film reviews. The majority of these pieces are by female authors and discuss the treatment of Black female sexuality, stereotypes, and body image in film and/or Davis’s success as a screenwriter and filmmaker.

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