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00:00 As someone who is a transplant from the South
00:03 who lives in Harlem right now,
00:04 even I felt like certain aspects of the movie
00:06 just hit differently by living in the neighborhood
00:09 right now, even seeing the 2000s aspect
00:12 and seeing the part of City on 125th in the film,
00:15 I was like, wow, this is so great.
00:18 So for both of you, to have that connection to New York,
00:21 why was this film such a personal story
00:23 for you as a director and writer,
00:24 but also you as an actress?
00:26 Because I feel like it kind of both loves New York,
00:29 but also critiques New York at the same time.
00:32 It kind of, New York itself is kind of like a character
00:34 in the movie.
00:35 So what was the personal story
00:37 that drew you to do this project?
00:40 - Yeah, I mean, I think I wanted to tell a story
00:43 that honored the era in New York that I grew up in.
00:46 It was just kind of me saying farewell to that time,
00:48 but I think there was also a sense of urgency
00:50 in wanting to see how the change was impacting communities
00:54 that were most vulnerable in the city.
00:55 And I think seeing gentrification firsthand
00:58 and how that was reshaping New York
01:00 in a way that it felt like black communities
01:02 were being pushed out altogether and being erased,
01:04 like as if we never happened.
01:05 I think I'm a New York City kid
01:07 who loves it through and through.
01:08 And so it's like, how do I feel about the fact
01:11 that the city feels like we were being targeted by?
01:13 It's like, the city doesn't love me.
01:15 You know, I think I really, in so many ways,
01:16 wanted to make this movie to reconcile that,
01:19 but also to shine a light
01:21 on the negative impacts of gentrification,
01:24 'cause people really had tried to argue
01:26 for the way people are supposed to be benefiting,
01:27 but it's not supposed to benefit the groups that are there,
01:31 the population that already exists in these communities.
01:33 So I really wanted to shine a light on how it works
01:36 and who it impacts and what that impact looks like.
01:38 - Yeah, yeah.
01:39 - For me, it was definitely a bittersweet,
01:42 you know what I'm saying?
01:43 Because in that era of INAE,
01:47 it's like I was Terry's age, you know?
01:49 So at that age, you know,
01:50 we didn't really understand what was going on,
01:51 but, you know, we remember all the things
01:54 that was so accessible, you know, the block parties,
01:57 the cookouts, how mama and pop, it felt like,
02:00 it was like one big family in Harlem.
02:03 And now, you know, it's just, it's so quiet.
02:06 So to go back home, of course,
02:08 I was excited to go see my friends and, you know,
02:11 and just go to all my favorite food spots
02:14 and my favorite spots,
02:15 so to go there and see that a lot of it
02:17 had been erased on top of just a lot of the seasoning salt
02:22 that was on there.
02:23 It was a lot more bland than Nantes fried chicken,
02:26 you know, than this fried chicken, you know,
02:28 it was giving me more of an uncooked baked wing,
02:30 you know, it was just like, it was a lot to take in.
02:34 And it was even emotional for us to have to rebuild out
02:37 the sweet spots in Harlem, you know,
02:41 it was the bittersweet.
02:42 Yeah, you know, it's like, I'm okay with evolution
02:45 and everybody evolves and different things like that,
02:47 but like a lot of the changes that was being done in Harlem
02:50 wasn't to benefit my community,
02:51 it was to push us out, you know?
02:54 So it was definitely emotional to see
02:55 how much change there were and how unaccessible
02:59 the things that my community needed was.
03:02 - Yeah, yeah.
03:03 And I wanna speak about going through
03:05 different time periods in the movie.
03:07 Like, was that always the, you know,
03:09 when you were crafting the story,
03:10 did you always know that you wanted to touch
03:12 different decades and periods of time?
03:14 And also for you, how was that, you know,
03:16 portraying Inez in two different periods of time?
03:18 Because you feel like, I feel like she,
03:21 she has more life experience,
03:22 like once she comes on screen immediately
03:24 during the next part of the movie,
03:26 we see that she's, I wouldn't say as jaded,
03:28 but like she's gone through so much where you can just,
03:30 even though we're not told exactly what that is,
03:32 we just feel it.
03:34 - I mean, in a sense, I feel like Inez
03:35 has been like gentified, you feel what I'm saying?
03:38 Like she was just so vibrant and, you know what I'm saying?
03:41 And she slowly starts to lose that vibrant accent.
03:45 Her voice is getting lower and lower,
03:48 she damn near is to a place where she doesn't have a voice,
03:51 like that spunk.
03:52 So it's sad to see her change just as much as New York,
03:57 you know what I'm saying?
03:59 And that's the emotional part about it.
04:01 And it was really emotional getting into it
04:03 because we didn't shoot in order.
04:05 So one day I had to be vibrant, young, colorful New York,
04:10 you know what I'm saying?
04:13 And then you see New York become more and more gray
04:16 and more and more glass,
04:17 and you see Inez become more gray and more glass,
04:20 you know what I'm saying?
04:21 Even just the deepness and the heaviness into that
04:24 was definitely a lot.
04:26 - And it was intentional.
04:27 I think just in the ways that I saw parallels
04:30 in the story of New York
04:32 and the way it lost the sense of personality
04:34 as it tried to become a lot more like everywhere else,
04:37 I feel like that in so many ways,
04:38 that is the journey of black women.
04:40 We're not accepted as we are,
04:41 we're not accepted for the things
04:42 that make us unique and special.
04:43 It's like everybody does want to quiet us down.
04:46 - We're tore down.
04:47 - Torn it down.
04:48 - They tear us down, they tear us down,
04:49 like they tear down our whole building
04:51 and rebuild us to be what they want us to be.
04:53 - Yeah, you have to lose that sense of who you are
04:55 in order to be loved by everybody.
04:56 And I think that, I saw an article recently
04:59 that said the sound of gentrification is quiet.
05:01 And I was like, that's what I've been trying to portray
05:04 in this movie.
05:04 And it's like, that is exactly right.
05:06 But I think black women are also told that like,
05:09 maybe if you were a bit more quiet,
05:10 maybe if you talk a certain way,
05:11 maybe if you walk a certain way,
05:13 then maybe life would be better for you then.
05:15 - Or you wasn't so miserable.
05:16 - Considered being miserable for being strong is crazy.
05:20 You know?
05:21 And then in the same nutshell,
05:22 somebody to tell you why you didn't fight back
05:23 on a certain thing.
05:24 It's like, oh, okay, cool.
05:25 So my spiciness is beneficial when it benefits you.
05:29 But when it's to uplift myself, it's a problem.
05:31 - Yeah.
05:32 And that's, Inez, you know,
05:33 portrays that beautifully in this film.
05:35 Love it so much.
05:37 Thank you both so, so much for your time.
05:39 And I cannot wait to, you know,
05:40 to watch this with more people
05:41 because I know more people to do.