Filmmakers and local leaders behind an upcoming film screening and conversation event see the city of Portland as being at a crossroads.
“All signals are telling us that the future of Portland is at stake,” said Andy Miller, executive director of Our Just Future. “The narrative of Portland is being taken away from us nationally. Let’s reclaim it.”
Partnering with “Where We Goin’?” filmmakers and Our Just Future, a Portland-based nonprofit that has worked for nearly four decades to fight poverty and housing insecurity in East Multnomah County, the event aims to stimulate conversations about displacement, belonging and the future of Portland’s Black community.
“We chose to partner because these films raise some of the most important questions facing Portland right now,” Miller said. “They talk about the harm that’s been caused, but also the hope that’s being recreated. We love the question at the heart of the project: Where are we going?”
That urgency and hope is at the heart of the Where We Goin’?: Power of Place Roadshow, which comes to McMenamins Kennedy School on Oct. 16. The national tour brings together two award-winning short films, “Where We Goin’?” and “Dear Young Black Portland,” live music and an honest conversation about the future of Portland’s Black community.
“This isn’t just a screening,” said co-creator and executive producer of the “Where We Goin’?” series Zoe Piliafas. “When you come in, it’s going to feel like fun. It’s going to feel like family.”
At the center of the evening are two deeply personal stories about identity and place. In “Dear Young Black Portland,” activist elder Sharon Gary-Smith, whose family home was taken through eminent domain decades ago, delivers a visual letter to the next generation.
“It’s really an inspiring call to action and passing of the baton from her to really tell people to keep going,” said executive producer Donovan Scribes.
The second short film, “Where We Goin’?,” follows Portland filmmaker Devin Boss through his hometown as he tries to uncover different truths about the city. Boss meets local Black artists and leaders who are working to heal and rebuild communities that were previously destroyed by racist urban planning policies that pushed Black residents out of their neighborhoods.
“Where We Goin’?” is the pilot episode for a series in development titled “Where We Goin’?: Power of Place.” In the series, Boss travels from predominantly white Oregon to some of the “Blackest cities in America,” exploring the meaning of home and the impact of displacement.
“Ultimately, it’s about belonging,” Scribes said. “Devin is traveling across the country asking how we build place and who gets to belong in it.”
The roadshow grew out of a sold-out local premiere in 2022, when audiences filled the Hollywood Theatre to see both short films. What began as a one-night event soon evolved into a nationwide series, with screenings from Los Angeles to Houston sparking dialogue on race, belonging and the meaning of home in America.
The films have earned national recognition, winning a Silver Remi Award at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival and two Grand Jury Awards at Film Invasion LA for Best Featurette Documentary and Best Editing Featurette.
“We knew that those films needed a larger life,” Piliafas said. “What we wanted with these films is for communities to have rich conversations around home, belonging, community and housing.”
After the screening, Scribes will moderate a panel with local experts and community leaders including Miller, Cornell Wesley, executive director of Prosper Portland, Paula Byrd, community liaison at Rosewood Initiative and Candace Avalos, city councilor representing District 1 covering east Portland.
The panel aims to explore how Portland can create great places that benefit the people who live there, especially people of color who have historically been pushed out of their neighborhoods.
“Portland, as a place, is being talked about on the national stage,” Miller said. “The films do some resetting of what happened, what’s possible. I think we have to imagine that possibility and what it takes to achieve it.”
Miller and the filmmakers behind “Where We Goin’?” and “Dear Young Black Portland” see this moment as an opportunity for Portland to confront its past and imagine a more equitable future.
“Come see these films,” Miller said. Discover the possibility of what Portland could be. I think there’s a lot at stake. It’s time to dig in.”
If you go: 6 p.m. doors, 7 p.m. screening with Q&A to follow; Thursday, Oct. 16; Kennedy School Theater, 5736 N.E. 33rd Ave.; $12 for adults, $8 for kids 12 and under; purchase tickets in advance at mcmenamins.com/events/270377-the-power-of-place-roadshow
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