Over the course of their careers Portland filmmakers Matt Zodrow and Tracy MacDonald have travelled the country learning the histories and stories of Americans, but for their latest project, Whitelandia, the Emmy-award winning husband and wife team have turned their lenses to their home. Due in 2015, Whitelandia examines the history of state-sanctioned racism in Oregon starting with its inception as a whites-only homeland to the heavy Klu Klux Klan presence in 1920s, the height of redlining in the 40s, and the rapid gentrification we see today. The film is centered on the uncomfortable yet important question, “Has Oregon become the white homeland its founders intended it to be?” but also focuses on the strength and resilience of black Oregonians throughout history and today. Tracy and Matt and spoke to me over the phone from their Alberta Street neighborhood home where we discussed the black community in Oregon, the title Whitelandia, and their hopes for the film’s impact.
Ann-Derrick Gaillot: What first drew you both to this subject?
Tracy MacDonald: We moved into the Alberta arts district about 12 years ago, and at that time, we were looking for a place where we could buy an affordable house — a place that was diverse, a place that had an artistic, creative feel to it. During the time that we have lived on this street, we have slowly watched a lot of the black businesses and a lot of the diverse businesses, but particularly black businesses that drew us to the street in the first place, disappear one by one. And we’ve watched the black patronage of the businesses disappear as the black population of the neighborhood has dwindled. Then we moved away for three years and when we came back the street was so drastically different from the street we moved into. We still feel very invested in this neighborhood. We love this neighborhood, our kids have grown up here. But the changes that we’ve seen and realizing how even as well-intentioned white liberals, or whatever, that we sort of stumbled into this gentrification without even really understanding what we were buying into. So “Whitelandia” for us is sort of a response to being part of this community and watching the changes that have occurred.
A.G.: The title Whitelandia touches on a trend of putting -landia on different names, obviously from the TV show Portlandia. I’m interested to know why this film is important to make now and how pop culture is complicit in what you guys are finding.
T.M.: For a show like “Portlandia” and the whole -landia trend to exist, there has to be a paradigm that supports that in the first place. There’s sort of this mythologized hipster version of feel-good, cute, white liberalism that’s ever present in Portland. And it seems so innocuous to kind of poke fun at it lovingly with a wink, and to poke fun at ourselves, but the paradigm that allows this whole -landia thing to exist to begin with is one that’s imbalanced. And one in which the social construct is very much white-dominated to begin with.
A.G.: What do you hope viewers not from Portland come away with from the movie?
Matt Zodrow: The outreach that we’ve done through Facebook and social media has gotten us feedback from all over the country, and one thing that we’re hearing over and over again is that the story of Portland is mirrored in almost every major city across the country. The active redlining — taking a specific area of the city where minorities are sort of herded into, encouraged to live in — has existed in cities across the country ever since the 1940s or 1950s. It’s common practice. So in seeing that reaction from people outside of Oregon we’re realizing it’s definitely a common theme. The difference in Oregon is that Oregon is almost the perfect example of gentrification because Portland itself has gentrified so successfully and continues to on a daily basis.
T.M.: One thing is that I really want white people, particularly white liberals, to think about is the idea of white privilege. I would like white folks to start to consider, what does my whiteness mean as I walk around this city? And I would like white folks everywhere to consider that, because that’s a relevant question all over the country. It’s relevant here in Portland right here, right now, because we live here and because Portland is seen as this sort of mecca of liberalism; this mythical Portlandia place. I would like everybody to understand that, while we are looking at state-sanctioned discrimination and other forms of discrimination against black Americans, it’s not just a story about that discrimination and subsequent victimization. It’s also a story of the resilience of the black community and of black communities to resist and to continue to be here and to thrive.
M.Z.: One thing, too, that’s important to note is that the film is going to have a pretty solid and straightforward historic timeline included in the narrative of the film. When you start to research black history in Oregon you really come up against some walls. There are a few people who have done timelines, who have looked at the history. But in general, it’s tough to find. One thing that I really want to have happen is this film be a solid and researched documentation of the history of black Oregon from exclusion laws in the constitution all the way to the heavy Klu Klux Klan presence to Vanport to redlining — all the way up to the Trader Joes incident that’s happening now. I want a solid history told and recorded that people can refer back to.
A.G.: What has shocked you most, or surprised you most, over the course of your research so far?
M.Z.: To me it’s the way that the events, like the flooding of Vanport and then the exodus to Albina, are incredibly relevant experiences or issues in the lives of black Americans in Portland. It’s not historic. It’s discussed openly and the effects are still strongly felt. They’re still feeling the effects of the expansion of the Emanuel Hospital, of the construction of the Coliseum, of I-5 going through Albina. We tend to look at the last three years of Williams as being what’s relevant to the black population, but it goes much further back than that. If you’re not in that culture you’re just not going see it. You’re not going to have those discussions, and it’s going to feel like history to you rather than your life.
A.G.: Can you tell me about your partnership with the Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs, and how the film has benefitted from that? You mentioned that you’ve partnered with other organizations as well.
M.Z.: Through a series of coincidences with creative projects we came into contact with Dr. Calvin Henry who is the head of the Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs. We were having a discussion with him one day about a project that we had ended and that we were looking for something new.
T.M.: Basically, we feel that a lot of the projects we’ve worked on in the past haven’t given us the opportunity to give fair representation to, or really serve folks of color. And in some of our other work we’ve come across stories in the black community — stories of discrimination, stories of resistance—that surprise us. So we just started talking with Dr. Henry about what it might look like to create a project that would address these issues that we have not had the opportunity to address in our previous work.
M.Z.: So Tracy and I then took the idea of combining the current state of gentrification, and all the other problems that exist with the history of black Oregon and through Dr. Henry came up with the idea of doing the film “Whitelandia” and then asked Dr. Henry if he and the board for the Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs would become the advisory board for “Whitelandia,” which they agreed to. So officially OABA is our advisory board and we go down to Salem to sit in on board meetings when we’re invited and to update them on the progress of the film. And as it moves forward, (OABA members) will sit through edits of the film, give us feedback, etc. We’ve done work with the Portland Observer and one of their reporters, Donovan Smith, who is a younger man. We’ve let him on as an adviser for the film because he brings a very unique perspective, his experience here in Portland being in his mid-20s. And recently we did a presentation for HUD, Human and Urban Development, and we’re speaking with HUD to pick a few members from their organization to become advisers for this film on issues of housing, which is huge in Portland and in Oregon when you’re discussing black communities.
A.G.: What kind of community response have you gotten since word of the film has gone around?
T.M.: We had an overwhelming response from people who want this film to be made, both black and white and other people of color as well. Of course there are those people who question: “Hey, you guys are white filmmakers, so can you really tell a fair and honest story when you guys are white?” And then we’ve had some white folks say things like, “I don’t really think that Oregon is so racist today, I just don’t feel those effects as much.” But there’s always people who are going to question, and that’s good. Dialogue around this issue is really important so we really appreciate and welcome conversation and dialogue around the process. But I can say overwhelmingly, people feel this is a project that needs to be made. We have been really happy and excited and honored to receive the support that we have from people in terms of their understanding why this is such an important project. I’m really happy because I think in general people are ready and willing to talk about race right now more than they have been. I think there’s sort of this lull, and I think people are realizing that there is a sort of mythology, there is this bubble, that it’s an illusion and it’s time to take things up to the next level and really start exposing the deep roots of racism and the way that it functions in everyday life without people realizing that they’re complicit in it. And I think people want to have these conversations now, I think we’re ready for it.
To learn more about “Whitelandia” and to fund this project visit the Whitelandia Kickstarter page, kickstarter.com/projects/whitelandia/whitelandia-black-oregon-white-homeland. To learn more about Tracy MacDonald, Matt Zodrow and their work, visit uncolafilms.com.
Click here to read a personal reflection of Geroge Mayes, a Street Roots vendor who grew up in Northeast Portland.
