Black Lives Matter Film Challenge

speaker: Black lives matter.

protestors: Black lives matter.

speaker: Black lives matter.

protestors: Black lives matter.

speaker: Black lives matter.

protestors: Black lives matter.

speaker: Because it doesn't matter.

speaker: It doesn't matter who I am, where I'm from, what I do, or what I've done.

speaker: It doesn't matter how I was raised.

speaker: What I wear, who I'm with.

speaker: Who looks up to me.

speaker: It doesn't matter if I'm successful.

speaker: If I have dreams.

speaker: What my plans are.

speaker: Where I'm going.

♪♪♪ speaker: It doesn't matter who I know, what I have.

speaker: What I'm thinking or where I go.

speaker: It doesn't matter how good of a person I am or try to be.

speaker: As a Black person in America.

all: I'm just one false accusation, one wrong place, wrong time, one cop or Karen having a bad day away from being abused, locked up, or murdered.

speaker: That's my everyday reality.

That's a paranoia I fear I may never shake.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ speaker: That's why.

♪♪♪ Mark Christopher Lawrence: Welcome to our "Black Lives Matter Film Showcase" featuring powerful and thought-provoking films selected from the Black Lives Matter film challenge.

I'm your host Mark Christopher Lawrence, and I'm happy to be here because obviously I'm Black and excited to bring these films to you.

These films aim to amplify the voices of the Black community and inspire conversations about race, identity, and the need for change.

Get ready to be moved, inspired, challenged as we showcase these compelling short films that highlight the urgent and ongoing fight for Black lives.

We start our showcase by exploring the Black male experience in America.

Wait a minute.

I'm both of those, Black and male.

Anyway, these films delve into the complexities of identity, masculinity, and the unique challenges that Black men face in our society.

Grab your popcorn.

Here we go.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [helicopter flying overhead] [police sirens going by] [helicopter flying overhead] [helicopter flying overhead] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ Imaginations racing, running on the saying.

♪ ♪ Tell me what you came for, ♪ ♪ if the feeling is the same.

♪ [police siren goes off] ♪ Can we go like this, all these games?

♪ ♪ Where's the light switch?

♪ ♪ So, dark and pain.

♪ ♪ I wish that I could fly away.

♪♪ [police radio speaking] ♪♪♪ [phone ringing] ♪♪♪ [exhaling] Lia Lasley: Babe, where did you say the popcorn was again?

Glenn Walker: Cabinet above the microwave.

Lia: No luck.

Glenn: Oh, that's weird.

I swear I picked some up.

You looked in the right place, right?

Lia: So, you're just going to have me in there looking, knowing damn well you didn't pick up any?

Glenn: Come on.

Okay, okay, fine, fine, fine, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

It slipped my mind, okay?

Lia: It's okay that it slipped your mind.

Okay, that happens.

This is the communication thing we were talking about.

Glenn: Okay, but we're talking about popcorn.

Lia: You're missing the point, missing the point.

Glenn: Judging by your nonverbal communication right now, I take it that there's a grocery run in my future.

newscaster: There are new developments into a high-profile police shooting of an unarmed Black man.

Lia: Oh my God, you, my love, should have been a psychic.

Glenn: You know, I thought about that once, but they just don't make enough.

Lia: Well, neither do psychology majors.

Oh, oh.

Glenn: Oh, you got--oh, can you say that again for the hearing-impaired?

What did you say?

Lia: I didn't say anything.

Glenn: I'm sorry, what did you say?

Say it, I'm right here.

I'm in your face now.

I'm in your face now.

I'm in your face now.

I'm in your face now.

Oh, yeah, you about to get that-- Lia: If you fart on me, I will kill you.

Get off of me.

Glenn: [laughing] Glenn: [laughing] Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be working in your boys tonight?

Lia: Nope, not doing that tonight.

Glenn: Oh, then we are free to-- Lia: Stop, stop, stop.

What am I gonna do?

I am going to pick a movie.

You are going to get some more popcorn.

Glenn: No, that can't be what's happening.

Lia: No, that's what's happening.

Glenn: No, that can't be what's happening.

Lia: No, there's no popcorn in there.

Glenn: Come on.

Lia: I went and checked.

You said there's popcorn.

There's no popcorn.

I can't watch a movie without popcorn.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Lia: I love you.

♪♪♪ [sirens driving away] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Lia: Hey.

You got my message.

Got it.

Hey, there's that communication word, wearing this ugly hat again.

You okay?

Glenn: Yeah, yeah.

I was just--I was just thinking I need to get the Bluetooth fixed in my car.

Lia: Huh.

Thought you were putting that off just to avoid my calls.

Glenn: Never.

Lia: So, I found a movie.

Lucky for you I found that horror movie you wanted to see in the theaters a few months ago.

It's streaming.

Glenn: Oh, word?

Cool.

Yeah, why don't you go ahead and fix the popcorn, and I'll hit the bathroom, and then we can get started.

Lia: Okay.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [popcorn popping] [popcorn popping] [popcorn popping] [popcorn popping] [popcorn popping slower] [popcorn popping slower] Lia: Popcorn's ready.

Glenn: What, babe?

Lia: Popcorn's ready.

Glenn: Oh, cool.

Hey, babe.

I changed my mind.

Let's do the rom-com.

Lia: Are you sure?

Glenn: Yeah, I'm positive.

Lia: Okay.

♪♪♪ [police sirens wailing] Leonard Lockhart: One of my favorite lines is if you're tired of hearing about racism, well, imagine being tired of experiencing it.

Kirkpatrick A. Burke: Racism occurs at different levels.

It's not just always, you know, outright racism or racial slurs being hurled at you, but you don't know the blockades that are really set up, you know, but they exist.

protestors: No justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace.

Randy McKenney: What's happening today, it's interesting because it's been happening probably for the last few hundred years.

It's not really new.

Leonard: And unfortunately I don't believe that the solution will happen quickly, at least not in my lifetime or even my children's lifetime.

Randy: My name is Randy McKenney, and I'm retired from the Department of Social Services state of Connecticut after working there 34 years.

Leonard: My name is Leonard Lockhart, and I am a district service manager for Johnson Controls.

Kirkpatrick: My name is Kirkpatrick A. Burke.

I'm an electrical engineer.

Work here at Raytheon Technologies or Collins Aerospace, the former Hamilton Standard years ago.

♪♪♪ Randy: I was born in Virginia, so I grew up with the differences in the race and the way people are treated and the way people act.

So, for me it's something that I've always been aware of, and I think that in the last, shall I say, four years I think an atmosphere has happened--has been created where it's not so subtle anymore.

You know, with the current, you know, political situation, it's gotten worse and I think people have felt more threatened because it's so blatant.

And I think what it's also exposed is that the people who you pay your taxes to protect your neighborhood and to make the right decisions because they're supposed to be in charge, it's come out that maybe that there's a larger percentage of those who aren't doing that job, who aren't protecting those people who might be minority who also pay their taxes.

Kirkpatrick: One of my first encounters where it was just blatant was my buddy Gary was driving.

It was probably four of us.

My buddy Gary, my brother.

I have an older brother.

He's about a year and a half older than me, and myself.

And I kid you not we were probably going--we were driving so slow 'cause we didn't want to go home, right?

It's like, "Oh, we get to stay out late."

So, we were just inching along 20 miles an hour.

You know, we turned a corner, and as soon as we turned a corner, like, these sirens start going off.

[imitates siren noise] The guy, he came around the corner like it was, you know, cops and robbers movie.

It was just so extra.

It was just so dramatic.

I'm like, "Okay."

And so then, you know, the guy comes out of the car.

He was a White police officer, and so then he says, "What are you trying to do, give me a chase?"

And I'm like--and I just thought, "Uh-oh, you know, we're in trouble."

And I was literally praying that this guy, like, doesn't beat us senseless or something.

And then thank God there was an accident or something 'cause I heard it on his intercom and he had to leave.

It was one of those incidents, it could have been worse, you know, and you never want, you know, your child to encounter something like that.

Kirkpatrick: Good defense, man.

Good defense.

Can you defend this?

Can you defend this?

Nope.

speaker: I'm not ticklish.

No!

Kirkpatrick: I think you are.

I think you are ticklish.

Kirkpatrick: I have more fear, like I said, for my teenager who's becoming--going to become 16.

So, when he's going out there in a vehicle and I know that, you know, he's Black, I'm going to have to have that conversation a lot more often and have to tell him, "This is how you behave.

Keep your hands on the wheel."

You know, give him a whole laundry list of what to do and pray that's good enough.

speaker: Three, two, one.

Go.

I know you're not going full-blow strength.

Come on, dad.

Don't do me dirty.

Leonard: I've been stopped more than I care for, but there's been times where I've been pulled over and had no clue of why and, "Oh, well, you look suspicious."

That's been happened.

I've been cuffed, sat on the curb.

"No, you're not allowed to search my vehicle."

Vehicle searched anyway.

I mean, that--it happens.

It is what it is.

It's not right, but that's the life that unfortunately I'm conditioned to.

I'm going to experience this the rest of my life, but not by the good cops.

There's a lot of great cops out here that do their job and want to do their job the right way, but then you do have some, unfortunately all professions, that are rogue, and I would believe that there might be a few rogue ones in police departments across the country.

speaker: Don't do that.

That's no fun.

Leonard: Yeah it is.

Randy: I've been stopped and, you know, one of the things that you can't check--if you get stopped and the policeman tells you that your brake light is out, you know, that's one of the few things that you can't check, right?

So, there's no way for you to check and see if they were being honest with you because you can't check that while you're in the--you could if the license was missing or something like that, but a brake you can't check.

So, you get home and you see, "There's nothing wrong with my brakes."

I'm not going to say it happens a lot.

You know, in the time I've lived here maybe four or five times where you're never quite sure really why they stopped you.

But, "Yes, officer.

You know, fine.

Going home," that kind of stuff.

Leonard: This kitchen table you're sitting at, what happen--this table is like Vegas.

What's said here and happens here stays here, and we've talked about a wide variety of things that impact their lives and race has been one of them.

I tell my kids, "Don't put yourself in a situation where you have to be engaged with the police.

However, if you are engaged with the police, make sure you know your rights, make sure you know your constitutional rights, make sure you know that--if you want some type of backup, if you want to record it, do whatever you need to do to safely get home.

If it happens to go left, it is what it is.

It's unfortunate, but the key is that we want you to come home safely."

If they're driving my vehicle, they can let them know, "Look, this is my dad's vehicle.

My wallet is right there."

My daughter, "My purse is over there."

Don't make any sudden moves.

Kirkpatrick: I tell him to keep his window down or--and keep his hands on the steering wheel.

Leonard: I'm not a fan of rolling down the windows because then that gives the officer an opportunity if he wants to open--harshly open your door.

I'm personally not a fan of that, but I--if it provides a little bit more comfort for the situation, I'll leave that to my kids to determine.

Kirkpatrick: If at all possible, have your lights on.

You know, turn on your dome lights.

Randy: It's okay to let that other person go ahead of you even though you should be the next one to go.

Don't worry about it.

You know, stop--you know, slow down and stop at a yellow.

Kirkpatrick: Just anything that, you know, can be misconstrued as something being done improperly in the car, try to mitigate that as much as possible.

Randy: I don't know another Black family that I know that hasn't had that conversation.

It's like it's a part of your-- it's a part of who you are.

Leonard: When I grew up in the '70s, it wasn't too far removed from the riots of the '60s.

So, my parents and my uncles and stuff, they--that was still fresh in their memory, and there was still a lot of tension going around from those riots.

So, when I interacted with Caucasians back then, it was definitely told to me that I wouldn't make it.

That I wouldn't live to see 21.

I would either be dead, or in prison, or strung out, or whatever.

Crime, drugs, whatever.

So, when you hear this from teachers, when you hear this from officers on the beat, when you constantly hear it, it becomes a part of your psyche, and you have to be mentally strong to battle through that.

And it was tough.

Mike Savino: Several hundred protesters coming to call for change.

As you can see behind me, they're now making that call here at the Hartford police station.

So, I'll step out of my way so you can see what happened.

This is now the fourth straight day that we've seen protests here in Hartford and elsewhere around Connecticut.

Kirkpatrick: My job as a dad is to really filter what he's seeing, 'cause if you just let everything come through the TV screen, sure, you're going to be a scared child cowering in the corner, and that's not what I want for my children.

I want them to be proud, strong, Black men.

Leonard: What would be great is an opportunity instead of dictating what happens at their table and what happens at my table is that we come together as a collective group, as a think tank and really, really say, "Hey, let's go through a level of different exercises.

Give me--you know, give me a quiz on--about White perceptions, I'll give you a quiz about Black perceptions, and then let's put it on the table of what were our true perceptions and let's talk through it."

Kirkpatrick: Try to reach out.

Try to extend yourself a little bit, I mean-- you know, whatever that may entail.

You definitely can't stay in your house.

You have to get out.

Just make yourself available to learning and mingling with people who are not just like yourself.

Randy: With all the protests that's going on, one of the things that changed--that might allow change to happen is there was a mixed group protesting, right?

'Cause there's not enough Black people in the country.

There's not enough Black people in the country that could have voted Obama in if all of them voted for him, right?

There's not enough.

So, there has to be White people and Hispanic people who are doing it also.

So, if you want something to change, then the majority group has to be willing to change also, right?

They need to be able to step up and say something and do something.

Leonard: I believe this generation is a lot more tolerant.

There's a lot of equality talk.

You definitely have a lot of different groups that are fighting for their rights to be at the table, to be heard, to be represented.

So, the tolerance for ignorance is definitely-- I believe it's passing us by.

It's a beautiful thing.

That progress is slow, but it-- the progress nevertheless is coming.

So, I'm thinking we're in a very, very good place.

This country has come a long way, and we got a long way to go.

Mark: Still here?

It's really not a conversation if you're not involved.

It's a monologue.

Next in our showcase are films created by talented Black female filmmakers.

These stories provide a unique perspective on the challenges, triumphs, and resilience of Black women in America.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Malcolm X: The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman.

The most unprotected woman-- person in America is the Black woman.

The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.

And as Muslims, the honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us to respect our women and to protect our women.

speaker: To be a Black girl in America is to be kind, smart, vocal, versatile, passionate, courageous.

Yet to be a Black girl in America is to be strong but silent, to be treated like the minorities of the minorities, to have all the femininity of a woman but carry the burdens of a man, to see your own people look down on you and pick you apart, to see the same people talk down on you try to mimic you and your culture, to be just as good as a Black man but not receive the same support.

To be a Black girl in America is multidimensional.

There's a point in every Black girl's life when she realizes she doesn't fit the standard, yet she is the prototype.

To be a Black girl in America is to be invincible.

speaker: Fuck it.

speaker: Computer, what time does the sun set today?

voice assistant: The sun is scheduled to set at 8:30 p.m.

It will be a warm evening.

speaker: Okay, but, like, what time does it get dark, like, for real-real?

voice assistant: The sun is scheduled to set at 8:30 p.m.

It will start to get dark then.

speaker: Okay, thank you for your helpful non-helpfulness.

[heart beating] [heart beating] [heart beating] [heart beating] [heart beating] [heart beating] [heart beating louder and faster] [heart beating louder and faster] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Mark: Next are films that highlight the historical, social, and political context that shape the lives of Black people and communities here in America and around the world.

So, it's not just about me.

It's global.

Although I'd like it to be about me because I love me some me.

From confronting systemic racism to advocating for social justice, these stories are an exploration of the broader impact of the Black experience.

♪♪♪ Nina Brewton: America, you're beautiful.

Your beauty the manifestation of the very best of everything that is within you.

Your shores shimmering as gold refined, a glimmer of hope across waters, a glimpse of home in the distance to those who have fought your battles stood their ground on your behalf on soil that does not bear your name.

America, these heroes prove.

We prove our love in the ranks of your stripes, our love made evident from our core.

I affirm my love for you and my core values.

Integrity first, service before self, excellence in all I've done for you.

America, you're beautiful.

You make it easy to love with your empty promises.

Heart set on the imagination of all that you are, all that we can be.

My heart has swelled for you, America.

Self-love nearly abandoned, set aside in the name of unity and inclusion.

Your comfort, my duty.

Your freedom is not my freedom.

It is not our freedom.

My reality, not yours, yet you refuse to see.

America, you're beautiful.

Your allure pouring over praying hands with every sunrise.

We give thanks for your daily bread, grains golden, rich with life nurturing generations of America.

The waves that carry dreams to your shores are waters of meditation flowing like the tears of dreamers.

Each drop gathers as clouds in your spacious skies raining down on your majesties, peaks purple like bruises in the hearts and on the backs of your countrymen.

By grace, you pour over us with your beauty as your children pour over you.

Your symbols of superiority lifted high upon your mountaintops, honoring always.

America first.

Your eyes fixed on your banner of war in all her glory, dignity perverted, saved for the ghost of those representing the worst of who you are.

Romanticizing the sins of your forefathers and their brothers, these American idols casting their shadows down on the least of these.

Their images carved into stone in the minds of your people.

America, you're beautiful.

However, you are the uncle no one speaks of, the abusive, violent, drunk uncle more than a mere black sheep.

They say he's the worst of our lineage, tearing his own family apart.

Battles with principalities fought at dinner tables, his hatred masquerading as pride and patriotism.

Thanksgiving every time he leaves carrying his anger, regrets, and greatest insecurities with him.

Fear, hypocrisy, and hatred he holds close like the family Bible yielding to its every word, holding it tightly, twine of discord, sowing into the hearts of his own children the tradition of abuse the family has long denied, perverting their love, calling it pride.

He's taught them to see others as the enemy, a threat to their way of life.

He fought on the front line for freedom, yet demonizes those who fight for their own.

America, you're proud of the seeds of your bloodline, your children becoming teachers who teach half-truths, congressmen passing laws exploiting the oppressed, the great-grandchildren of slave hands becoming those who swore to protect and serve.

America, you're so beautiful, but you can no longer afford to fall into the shadows of a past rooted in darkness, hatred, and evil.

You have violence sewn into the very fabric of your being, this fabric the rope used to hang the sweetest of fruit from trees.

It burns the hands of those refusing to release their tugging, holding on to their allegiance to the myth of liberty and justice for all.

So, we fight, we stand in liberating strife.

Infernos burning city to city from the splendorous mountains and lush valleys of the land of gold eastward to the streets of the capital of the confederacy, northbound throughout the rotten apple illuminated by the light of Lady Liberty herself.

We fight.

We march.

We pray.

We lament for his--for your deliverance, America.

So much beauty and potential worthy of love.

The grace we're all worthy of.

Even I stand enveloped in grace.

Somewhere between the love of Christ, the words of Baldwin, and Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, high atop mercy's billboard we be the light creating space for grace to abide, yet exposing lies, the shadows in the corners of our minds.

Light begets light, illuminated by love, reflecting off of mirrors forcing our brothers and sisters to see themselves as they are.

We be the light, the light on a path forward to the America of our best and brightest imaginations, teaching our children to cease fleeing from reality, showing them how to change it for the benefit of all lives, even if the reality is not yours.

America.

Evan Lowe: So, let's run the numbers.

There's 7,789,219,154 people who speak over 6,500 languages from 196 countries that practice anywhere from 0 to 4,300 religions.

Color, ethnicity, and heritage are measured on a spectrum that is solely defined by you, by me, by we.

I breathe my nationality and share the same ozone air as a newborn baby girl in New Zealand and a great-great-great-grandfather from Great Britain.

When I look up, do you see the stars too?

Do we rise to the same sun and set to the same moon?

See, understand that I am because we are, but I cannot exist unless you acknowledge it.

So, let's run the numbers.

There's 7,789,593,215 people who speak over 6,500 languages from 196 countries that practice anywhere from 0 to 4,300 religions.

Race, gender, and age are measured on a spectrum that is solely defined by you, by me, by we.

How can we rest in peace if we are drowning in familiarity and similarities?

I want my great-great-great grandchildren to read stories about our bravery, how we overcame to be something more noteworthy than a cliff note in history.

I want to hear the world sing about me.

I want to see the universe compose a poem based on your DNA.

I want the cosmos to cry over symphony sketched out of notions as simple as you and me, but I cannot exist unless you acknowledge it.

So, let's run the numbers.

There's 7,789,786,547 people who speak over 6,500 languages from 196 countries that practice anywhere from 0 to 4,300 religions.

Sexual orientation, class status, physical and mental abilities and qualities are measured on a spectrum that is solely defined by you, by me, by we.

Because when you cry, no religion will ever help me understand you better in that moment.

And when you laugh, no language will ever emphasize the meaning behind so much joy you can hold it.

And when you sing, no shade of melanin will ever dampen the power of your voice like it's been chosen.

When you hold my hand and I'll listen to your heartbeat, we can begin to see that the distance and barriers built between us are nothing more than what we made them up to be.

So, each one teach one, and let that be a reason because I cannot exist unless you acknowledge it.

So, let's run the numbers.

There's 7,789,999,999 people who speak over 6,500 languages from 196 countries that practice anywhere from 0 to 4,300 religions.

Identity, family, and our stories are measured on a spectrum that is solely defined by you, by me, by we.

How beautiful it is that we are separated by no more than six degrees.

Yes, I'm talking you and me.

The combination of our combinations are endlessly unfathomable and everlasting.

The fabric of our existence only gets stronger the more that we weave.

I may never know your name, but we are all branches on the same tree.

And when you think about how one of you can be powerful beyond measure or belief, imagine what the might behind every single heartbeat on the planet earth could be, the house we could build if we all brought one brick.

But I cannot exist unless you acknowledge it.

So, let's not run the numbers anymore.

I mean, we're humans, not math problems.

You cannot simplify our lives by using simple equations.

You cannot quantify love, but I can always ask you how your day went.

I can always promise to take a bow in a light which will also allow you to shine.

The shadows we cast across this crust are only reaching for each other because even the coldest, darkest parts of us stretch to connect.

Do the lines in your palms truly look any different than mine?

See, I could trace those lines like I could trace our history, like I could trace our ancestry, like the future could trace back to what we encourage them to be.

So, in our obituary, how will they remember you, remember me, remember we?

Let them say that we were martyrs for peace and that the only thing we ever truly wanted or need was a chance to let our lungs breathe, the chance to let our voices speak.

I want my last words to be I love you and not I'm sorry.

So, hoist me on the shoulders of giants and carry me to harmony.

I will not fight.

I will go happily knowing that the chance to be you, the chance to be me, the chance to be we is something we can never neglect, knowing that we cannot exist unless you acknowledge it.

Mark: As we come to the end of our showcase, we hope these films have sparked discussions and deepened your understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Continue engaging with these important issues.

Listen to Black voices and take action in your communities to promote equality and justice.

Thank you for joining us on this journey, and we look forward to continuing to support and amplify Black voices in the fight against racism.

Remember, Black lives matter today, tomorrow, and always.

Thank you for watching.

I'm Mark Christopher Lawrence.

Peace.

Hair grease.

I'm out.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ announcer: Support for this program comes from the KPBS Explore Local Content Fund, supporting new ideas and programs for San Diego.