Harvey Pullings II
- Director
- Writer
A native of the south side of Chicago's Chatham community and Princeton Park, Pullings, grew up a lover of film but did not originally have aspirations to be a filmmaker. Growing up with a love for video games, pro wrestling and literature, it helped shape his perspective of himself as well as his interests in identity amongst people of color living in the inner city.
While attending Moraine Valley Community College, he began to take up sociology and political studies, learning about the way communities operate based on their beliefs and practices. This would lead him to taking up photography and film studies, which he would practice by capturing urban life and the conditions of the inner cities of Chicago. An interest he credits to his father's love of photography, as well as the works of Gordon Parks, Charles Burnett and Spike Lee. After transferring to Columbia College Chicago, his studies of cinema would go onto develop into the thematic preferences, focused on the perspectives of the "common man's turmoil," the struggles of identity, father's legacy and the impact on children, along with racial dynamics and violence. He credits his middle class upbringing that made his perspective of inner city life thorough and humble, with an acknowledgment of varied obstacles, inherit to the progression of people of color in America.
While attending Columbia, Pullings interned for the Chicago division of Allied Integrated Marketing, where he assisted in regional and skewed marketing, as well as promotion of films and TV for studios: A24, Universal Studios, Disney, ABC and NBC. He would also assist in Q&A photography for special screening events and studio reports, capturing images of Alex Garland, Eddie Redmayne and others. Outside of his internship, Pullings would shoot concert photography for hip-hop artists Currensy, Mobb Deep, and Joe Budden, during their tour stops in the Chicagoland area, as well as the Suicide Girls Blackheart Burlesque show. His final internship came as an Extras Casting Assistant, for the controversial Spike Lee joint, Chiraq. An experience that Pullings credits as "The boost of confidence and moment of clarity I needed while pursuing this industry." His first major project, the short film To those with Good Intent, was accepted into four festivals, domestically and internationally - winning the Audience Choice Award at the 2017 Chicago International Reel Shorts Film Festival.
While attending Moraine Valley Community College, he began to take up sociology and political studies, learning about the way communities operate based on their beliefs and practices. This would lead him to taking up photography and film studies, which he would practice by capturing urban life and the conditions of the inner cities of Chicago. An interest he credits to his father's love of photography, as well as the works of Gordon Parks, Charles Burnett and Spike Lee. After transferring to Columbia College Chicago, his studies of cinema would go onto develop into the thematic preferences, focused on the perspectives of the "common man's turmoil," the struggles of identity, father's legacy and the impact on children, along with racial dynamics and violence. He credits his middle class upbringing that made his perspective of inner city life thorough and humble, with an acknowledgment of varied obstacles, inherit to the progression of people of color in America.
While attending Columbia, Pullings interned for the Chicago division of Allied Integrated Marketing, where he assisted in regional and skewed marketing, as well as promotion of films and TV for studios: A24, Universal Studios, Disney, ABC and NBC. He would also assist in Q&A photography for special screening events and studio reports, capturing images of Alex Garland, Eddie Redmayne and others. Outside of his internship, Pullings would shoot concert photography for hip-hop artists Currensy, Mobb Deep, and Joe Budden, during their tour stops in the Chicagoland area, as well as the Suicide Girls Blackheart Burlesque show. His final internship came as an Extras Casting Assistant, for the controversial Spike Lee joint, Chiraq. An experience that Pullings credits as "The boost of confidence and moment of clarity I needed while pursuing this industry." His first major project, the short film To those with Good Intent, was accepted into four festivals, domestically and internationally - winning the Audience Choice Award at the 2017 Chicago International Reel Shorts Film Festival.
