Portland filmmakers celebrate Black history in Juneteenth event

In November 2024, the screening of two short films at the Hollywood Theatre a few days after the presidential election coincided with a sense of anguish, and the need for community and belonging. On June 19, Portlanders will have another chance to see them.

Filmmakers Donovan Scribes and Devin Boss created “Dear Young Black Portland” and “Where We Goin: the Power of Place.” Both will screen at the Tomorrow Theater on Southeast Division Street for the Power of Place Juneteenth event.

The evening will include a post-screening conversation with Boss and Scribes. Michael Alexander, board chair for Albina Vision Trust, and Intisar Abioto, a multidisciplinary artist and curator of the 2023 exhibition “Black Artists of Oregon” at the Portland Art Museum, will join the discussion.

Scribes, former vice president of Portland’s NAACP, is an award-winning writer, artist and speaker. He’s written for The Oregonian, the Skanner and Street Roots. He also co-wrote the iTunes chart-topping podcast series Uprising: a Guide from Portland. His platform, Gentrification is WEIRD! tackles Black history, policing and, of course, gentrification. Scribes recently helmed the Blackout Retrospective for the Portland Mercury.

Boss is a Northeast Portland native, director and the owner of North East Production. North East Production has earned two Telly Awards for social impact and short-form broadcast documentary, as well as the Best Short Documentary award at the worldwide Best Shorts Competition for What We Lost Along the Way. The film was well received at the 2024 Portland Film Festival.

Storytelling and Black identity are at the heart of the filmmakers’ most recent work.

“Dear Young Black Portland” (runtime: seven minutes), inspired by the life of Sharon Gary-Smith, is the second part of a series called the Elder Anthology created by Boss and Zoe Piliafas. Gary-Smith is a former president of the NAACP, longtime philanthropic activist and social justice leader. As the writer, Scribes interprets her perspective to make the film a letter from Gary-Smith to Portland’s next generation. Boss directed and Piliafas produced the film. Boss plans to explore Black hubs across the country and tell similar stories.

With a title that speaks for itself, “Where We Goin: the Power of Place” (runtime: 29 minutes) is about community resilience and home. Boss directed the film and narrates on-screen as he explores his identity by tracing the course of culture and change makers across time in Portland. This includes Abioto’s imprint on the Portland Art Museum and her effort to purchase the former home of historic icon Beatrice Cannady. Boss and Abioto meet up with the Albina Vision Trust to talk about restorative redevelopment. This film is making the rounds of film festivals around the country and won the Silver Remi Award at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival this spring. Scribes, Piliafas and Boss are executive producers with Elizabeth Stock as producer.

Scribes and Boss recently spoke to Street Roots.

Ellen Clarke: What was the starting point for creating these films?

Devin Boss: As a young Black man, I think a lot of the films I grew up on and was fond of weren’t necessarily reflective of who I was, where I come from and things like that. I thought it was important to tell those stories and thought there was a huge gap there. I love creation. I wanted to tell stories that are representative of where I’m from. There’s Portlandia over here and that’s cool but it really doesn’t reflect where I’m from and didn’t feel like the Portland I knew. I made the first proof of concept on my own and it grew from there into something. Then it went from that to the first showing at the Hollywood Theatre premier. Since then, we got Donovan and Elizabeth on the team and the project has improved, grown and evolved in a crazy way.

Donovan Scribes: With “Dear Young Black Portland,” we came back with year two of the anthologies. Zoe again was thinking on what we could come up with. She witnessed my relationship with Sharon Gary Smith, the president of the Portland NAACP at the same time I was one of the vice presidents. So Miss Sharon and I spent some years building together with the NAACP. I had known her before but then as we were leading up to taking over the branch I really got to know her well. As an elder, she really reached in with me. She reached in with her peers. I felt really seen and I could see where other people felt seen by her. I could see where we had divergences and she held me in that too. With no person are you going to align 100%, but there is a different way she can hold that space. That’s the impetus for “Dear Young Black Portland” so I interviewed Miss Sharon. I meditated on her and the city and the words I heard from her and in some ways, words I needed to hear when I was younger. It made for a beautiful piece about seven minutes long with her writing to Portland, the future of the city.

Clarke: What message do you hope viewers will walk away with after seeing these films?

Boss: I hope they walk away feeling a lot of awe and wonder. I want people to watch these films and I want their imaginations to be teased and I want them to be curious. I want them to go find out more about Beatrice Cannady and Albina Vision Trust. I also think there’s something powerful about telling its story throughout time and how it impacts how you exist in that space. I have spoken to a lot of people now who, when they walk down Alberta Street, they feel like they’re walking down a different Alberta. It’s exciting to think that a film can reframe the way people see their city and the people in it. I’m excited that people will see the film and potential of Portland’s future. We all stand to benefit from a movement like this, whether you’re white, Black, Hispanic, Asian. When we’re all sitting in our power, the city stands to benefit in a tremendous way.

Scribes: I would ditto that and just say I think “Where we Goin” is ultimately a series, so I want people to be excited about what’s next. This episode, the piece is where we reach back and look forward at the same time. Albina Vision is in action right now, so people get to watch it in real time to see what’s next.

Beyond this episode, it’s a series where Devin is going to continue to go across the country and explore Black hubs and tell similar stories. It’s cool to see this piece have people wrestle with the idea of home. That’s what this series is nestled on: exploring and defining home for people.

What I want people to walk away with at this specific screening is to reach into this day that’s talking about freedom and have stories looking to the past and looking toward the future at the same time. Devin will be moderating, I’ll be there. Michael Alexander, the former CEO of the Urban League of Portland will be on stage and Intisar will be there as well. Some of those deeper conversations will get to be had in real time with people. We’ll have a few Black businesses on hand as well for people to spend their dollars because we’re talking about economy and money. That’s exciting to me as well.

Clarke: What were the challenges and rewards of making these films?

Boss: There was a lot that went into the films. It’s exciting to look at these stories and find a central truth and weave that thread throughout a tale. There was a time crunch. We had an event where we had to premier these films, they had to be done. We got a bunch of people that are busy and have things going on so just getting the films shot was a Herculean lift, to create the final product that is commensurate with the level of storytelling we’re trying to do. We want it to be something that shines — that’s of movie theater quality. The time constraints on it were a pretty unique difficulty for us but I also appreciate pressure.

The most exciting part, obviously, is finishing the film. Having it shown. I remember watching the film with my community at Black Friday and thinking about the world of work that went on behind the scenes and the tremendous stress, looking around the theater at all these different Black faces watching the film, spellbound by it. That’s the most gratifying experience I could ask for as a creative, is to see your work mean something to the people you want it to mean something to. It was very surreal and emotional for me to sit in that theater and to see these generations of Black folks in the space and our stories are what brought them together. I can’t say enough about it. I’ll never forget it.

Scribes: I would say, to that same end with “Where we Goin,” people always ask where they can see it and get hold of it. But with “Dear Young Black Portland,” the night we screened it — I’ll never forget the moment I got to read the words to Miss Sharon that I put together, reading with no visual behind it at that point, like this is what I made that is supposed to be from you. The deep reaction she had to that felt so great …

“Dear Young Black Portland” was the first one we screened at night and people were standing on their feet at the last note. It was heavy. There’s a lot of heart and intention behind these pieces. It’s not just story for story’s sake. This is our lives and explorations and they turn into pieces that land with other people. Any of the challenges are worth it because of what it produces on the other side. The challenge for “Dear Young Black Portland” is to find and tell stories of elders in our community and do it in a way that feels artistic. Not just a recollection, but translating their stories in their voice.

To be entrusted with somebody’s story in any of my practices and trying to make it into something that is reflective of the person and places. That’s always a thing. I have nerves around that and trying to do it on some pretty tight timelines as well is its own thing.

Boss: I was tremendously impressed with our team. When you’re creating something there’s a lot of trust involved and you have to trust that it’s going to work. We had to continue pushing through until we found that harmony. The fact that we found something harmonious in that effort in such a short amount of time speaks volumes about what we are capable of if we’re adequately funded, if we’re given the proper amount of time. The fact that we were able to create these whole pieces of work in that time constraint speaks volumes to this team and the kind of storytelling and dedication we have to the stories we’re telling.

Clarke: Donovan, do you prefer producing or writing?

Scribes: At core I’m a writer but I’m not really tied to some specific title. I do things, I make things I feel pulled or pushed into. Writer at core, but I will produce, I will do communications to help people tell their stories.

I’m going to push on policy as well. It’s not one thing for me. Writing is its own meditative practice for me where I get to sift through the words and figure out what the story is. Producing is the big picture storytelling and all those pieces feel good. With “Where we Goin,” Devin is the host and the director. Then we have our production team: Zoe (Piliafas), myself, Elizabeth (Stock) and Devin. We all put our minds together to say what is this container of a story we’re trying to tell here. Everybody’s contributions show up in this piece. It’s a great thing as a producer to be able to see these pieces come together as one whole. I enjoy being creative.

Clarke: Devin, what is the most interesting part of directing?

Boss: I love collaborating with people. I feel so lucky I was able to amass a beautiful community of people that I like, that I love, that I care about. It’s all those things. When we did Beatrice Cannady day, we were walking through this beautiful Grant Park neighborhood. I got a crew of Black and Brown people. I’ve got all this camera gear and Intastar and we’re storming through neighborhoods. It had to be a spectacle for them. I think one time we were walking down the block and one of the white families were inside this house and they had this big old window and they were just looking at us like we were Amazons. It was like a beautiful moment to know the power of how much tension goes into creating a moment of what that kid saw. How difficult it is, how much you have to believe in these stories to will this into existence. I feel that in the moment.

I feel such deep gratitude that I get to do this. We all have stories. I think there is something special about owning your story and demanding that it be brought into existence, dragging it into existence with people you care about. Every obstacle, every difficulty was met by myself or somebody else head-on and rectified and turned into poetry. The creation of this project, I felt the power of what community is. At the same time I’m telling Black stories from Portland as a Black person from Portland so I’m continuously learning about myself as a Black Portlander. It’s like creating a standard of what I need in my life to create. These are the circumstances I want in my life as a creator. I want to create around people I respect, love and care about and to tell stories that move the needle.