- (male announcer) Every day in the Mid-South.

Videographers, writers and artists of all kinds are hard at work, and each fall, the Indie Memphis Film Festival brings them together, along with films from around the world.

In the next hour, we'll show you some of our favorite ho metowner short films and music videos from recent Indie Memphis screenings and introduce you to their creators.

Grab a seat.

This is your VIP pass to Indie TV: Local Short Films from Indie Memphis on WKNO.

- I got my first video camera when I was nine years old, so I don't know.

I kind of just always have been a filmmaker of some sort.

- I want to help do whatever I can to bring more eyeballs here to see the talent we have and what kind of stories there are to tell here in town.

- At the end of my life, I want to hopefully look back and say I helped in some significant way create a sustainable entertainment market in a city that wasn't there before.

- I feel like people if they're outside of Memphis, they have a particular image of what Memphis sounds like or Memphis you know, kind of looks like.

I want to be a part of the movement that kind of shows a different side of Memphis that people aren't really expecting.

- When it's at its best there's just this real tight knit, supportive energy that comes from this kind of workman like feeling of being artists in Memphis.

- For Indie Memphis, our mission is to foster intersectional and racially equitable film community and also to nurture the growth of filmmakers.

We're actually going into our 27th film festival this year.

Very excited about that.

It's a very, very exciting to be on the side where we get to interact with the audience, but we also get to interact with filmmakers as well in on their journey as they're finding ways to get their, to get their vision out there in the world.

[film projector clicking] [saxophone playing] - People have their perceptions of what art is, but I want to break down the barriers that confine art.

For the people who don't have a pr eexisting knowledge of art, I want to expose them to it from my point of view.

Art is purely creative, making what you want to make and making what makes you happy, not working for a system or people's approval.

My name is Richard Echols and I am an artist.

The message behind my art is pretty simple.

I want to just encourage representation, predominantly with people that identify with, people of color.

People that have suffered in America or in any part of the world based on anything racially charged or by the color of their skin.

Biggest reason why I am the way I am today is by all of the influences, whether it's family, people that I've come in contact with, you know, whether it's through school or in passing, work.

I am a reflection of that.

So I want to use my work to highlight different people in the world.

So I'm a originally from Whitehaven, went to church here.

My elementary school was here, stayed by Hillcrest High School.

Like, this is the neighborhood that I'm from.

When I wanted to get away and escape, I would come to my grandma's house.

- This meat ain't ready?

- That's uh, pork.

- Is it already ready, Linda?

- No, I finna start it.

- You see Annie looking for the meat?

- It's like feedin' the pot.

Just keep feeding.

- It didn't resonate until I was an adult was how much art and black art that my grandma was collecting and had on display throughout the whole house.

We just sit in the house and just look at the walls.

I could just kind of look at the artwork individuals, and I kind of get lost in the narratives of the artwork that was on display.

Little did I know that was informing, you know, how I process and wanted to document and create art myself.

My earliest memory of of being inspired by a piece of artwork, you know, my grandmother's house.

It was done by Kevin Williams and it was a piece of a man.

He's like extremely strong and very muscular, but he's in chains, but on top of his head, in his head is actual key.

That piece just stood out to me so much and it was so crazy because it was so enlightening as a young kid for me to be able to process that like, Hmm.

The key's in his head and that, you know, that is the key to freedom, you know, freeing your mind.

I wanted to make my own reality.

So being and being in a space where, you know, things are so simple, it kind of forced me creatively.

I remember being in elementary school and like, you know, we would have, like, competitions of who can draw better or who can draw this.

And then I realized that I had a knack for it, and then I would, like, draw people to impress people.

And so in a lot of ways it was a hobby that was forming, a love that was forming for me to, you know, capture the things that are around me, the people that are around me, and create it and make it my own.

Seeing how people interacted with it, the people that I care about and and my circle of influence, it just encouraged me to keep on going and keep on doing it.

And that support, you know, kind of is the DNA that kind of put me in a position where I am today.

Asking me, how do it feel, you know, knowing that there were people around me, you know, successful in art.

I'm being honest with you.

I didn't have a good grasp and understanding of art until college.

The years that I attended the University of Memphis was from 2018 to 2021, and I acquired my MFA in Painting, which is a Master's in Fine Arts.

There was artists in my previous school, MTSU, that went here and there was a professor that went here as well, and I was trying to figure out my next steps.

And they say, "Hey, you should go on a tour.

You're from Memphis, you should check out the program."

And that's kind of how everything came about.

I applied and I was like, Why not?

So the next three years were dedicated to this program.

My studio was 210.

What would happen is I would leave my keys in the studio if I went to the restroom or I'm just tired or whatnot.

And so what I would do is I go into this room and I would grab a ladder and I would put the ladder right here.

And I climb up and drop over and fall into the studio to get my key because I was working after hours.

And I quickly realized that the police don't have, the police on campus, don't have keys to these studios, so.

I'm sure that there's some type of footage on that camera down here of me kind of shimmying on top.

And it's kind of kind of dangerous.

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I didn't expect to get it.

I wasn't necessarily the most qualified.

So they definitely took a chance on me.

What happened in between the year, between me graduating from MTSU to me going to the University of Memphis, I had no studio, I had limited materials.

I had a janky easel.

I was in a three-bedroom apartment with two of my friends and I was working at the UPS store.

I guess the good thing about it was once I was accepted, none of that mattered.

Like, I was here now.

So, number one, I feel like they saw something in me that I didn't see in myself.

And number two, I was willing to learn everything.

So I was a big sponge.

I was soaking up everything.

I didn't act like I knew anything.

It was a lot of responsibility thst came with being in this program.

Outside of making work, they wanted me to be a student assistant to the professors, and then it also put me in a predicament to actually start doing student teaching.

And that was a big transition for me because I wasn't the most outspoken.

I wasn't good at speaking to groups of people.

But I realized that throughout practice, you know, from being in a program and teaching classes for my first time, it became a lot easier teaching something that I was passionate about.

What I wanted to happen, once I graduated, was I wanted to be a famous artist and art professor, a full-time art professor, but it didn't really pan out that way.

That was the thought process in 2017.

And then by 2020, I just wanted to create a solo exhibition.

I wanted to get comfortable in my craft and I wanted to continue learning and getting better at being a teacher.

Kind of came in with looking at things more self-serving and then realizing that my expectations changed to actually be more of a servant to the public.

Because as I make work, I just don't make work for myself.

I make work for people to consume and respond to and and be affected by it.

The name of the merch line that I created while I was in the University of Memphis was "Support living artists.

Dead ones don't need it."

I was in the midst of, believe it or not, like transitioning like the way I dress.

And I was looking online.

I was looking at how people dress and just trying to figure out the latest trends and stuff.

And I realized I was like, I was just tired of investing money into like clothes and brands that, number one, don't care about me and people that look like me and walking around looking like everybody else.

I was like, well, what's my what would be my take on clothes?

Like if I would wear something with what I want it to represent?

And I was like, in what ways can it represent artists?

And you know what I believe in?

We got so many people, like, that we say we admire and we believe in, but we don't invest in them.

And it's not always a financial investment, but, you know, the creatives and artists that are around now, they need to know that they're validated and to know that they're needed and important.

Showing your support, believing in them, you know that means a lot because, you know, artists are one of the most overlooked, underappreciated people.

But we kind of like we're the tastemakers of the world.

Don't wait to someone's going to like, give them the recognition and support and your love because they can't benefit from it, you know, in reality.

So, you know, when you say "Support living artists, dead ones don't need it", it's just like a little funny exaggeration that I really like.

And I really want people to think about it like, you know, give people flowers while they still here, not when they gone, you know.

How does it feel to be granted a residency in my hometown?

I must say that it felt great.

The name of the residency was called Crosstown Arts Residency Program.

The residency program was located here in Memphis, Tennessee, would say here in Midtown.

It was supposed to last from February to April, but due to certain circumstances and the nature of my work and the fact that I'm local, they extended my residency program all the way through the summer, so February to July.

When I first applied, I did not get accepted.

And it hurt a little bit.

You know, just because I just felt like I was a shoo in to get it.

I was easy to please.

I don't ask for much.

I was like, Hey, I just want a little small space to work.

It don't matter.

A year later and ended up reaching back out and saying that they had a spot open and I was like, Yeah, like, I do want to be a part of residencies.

I created a lot of are.

The cool thing about the residency was that I was around so many different disciplines, so that kind of helped influence the work that I worked on.

So outside of working on my centralized body of work, which is predominantly painting, I had some opportunity to work on things digitally, graphically, photography, the whole nine.

My work is very process based, so at times I need to take a break to like let a layer dry So while I'm letting that layer dry I might bounce and work on another idea or another painting or might be going through some old photos to see what I might want to paint.

I'm not monolithic where I'm not identified just by one thing.

Being exposed to so many different practices, whether it's we had a comedian, we had a rapper, we had a photographer, a ceramicist.

There are so many different practices where let me know that, like I'm not confined by the label or the title as a painter, I just want to be known as an artist and a visual artist.

So sometimes I wake up one day and I'm I want to do some performance art.

I might want to dance.

You know, I think the most creative people or the most creative things in life it doesn't have boundaries.

So I think this residency kind of helped remove some of those barriers and those boundaries that we kind of set ourselves or that I set on myself when it came to my practice.

So yeah, it kind of just kind of set me free in a lot of ways.

I see myself and my art evolving in the coming years to be more vocal, be more controversial.

If people respect what I'm doing and are looking at my work, then I feel like I should have something greater to say.

My first stab at the work that I've been making that I'm known for was through representation and highlighting, you know, people that look like me.

But now I want to tell stories.

Now I want to kind of challenge people's thought process because sometimes I feel like we are slaves to what we were taught.

And I just want to encourage people to make decisions on their own, encourage people to be great, follow their dreams.

I want everyone to know that they're some type of artist and creative and they have value, and I want everyone to take ownership of that.

So I want my work to explicitly start to communicate that.

When I was touched by that quote, that "an artist's duty is to reflect the times", it kind of help centralize what drives my work, or centralize how I look at the world.

But it also kind of made me want to think about what does this mean on a larger scale and how do I want other people to be impacted by that statement?

- I remember seeing Richard's art and just really loving it, looking on his Instagram page and seeing, you know, his process and things like that.

And at that point in time, I hadn't made a film in two years.

And so I was like, you know, I feel like it's time for me to make something again.

And so I just asked Richard, I was like, "Hey, "can I just make a short little, you know, clip of you talking about your art?"

because it wasn't supposed to be a film.

It was just supposed to be like a one minute video for Instagram.

Should we all do it?

And I remember him saying, you know, if other people see this and really need to represent Memphis and represent art, and I was like, man, I just got to make this into something more and just, you know, a little clip for Instagram that's, you know, just there.

And then, you know, you keep scrolling.

My name is Chloe Jackson.

I grew up in Southaven, Mississippi, and I got my first video camera when I was nine years old.

So I don't know, I kind of just always have been a filmmaker of some sort.

I like creating art that represents a certain place either where I'm from, where I'm working, or where I'm currently at at the moment.

I call myself a documentarian because it's all I've ever made.

But I do want to do more as a filmmaker.

[film projector clicking] [alternative rock music] ♪ Always staring at this picture frame ♪ ♪ This lonely kid, he has a name ♪ ♪ It rhymes with the words you write ♪ ♪ He hates this party and this night ♪ ♪ It seemed so pointless 'til you came ♪ ♪ My hand, your number and your name ♪ ♪ You say the cigs will stain my teeth ♪ ♪ Shallow eyes with a mind so deep ♪ ♪ You're all so different but lie the same ♪ ♪ Glass houses, throw the rocks of pain ♪ ♪ Another empty voice, the phone ♪ ♪ I'm way too drunk and so alone ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Always screaming at this picture frame ♪ ♪ This lonely boy, he has my name ♪ ♪ It tastes so different off your tongue ♪ ♪ I hate this song and how it's sung ♪ ♪ I hate you liked me for my pain ♪ ♪ I hate I loved it all the same ♪ ♪ I sometimes miss that empty face ♪ ♪ Buried in a pillow at your place ♪ ♪ You say these parties are all the same ♪ ♪ While you are too drunk to know my name ♪ ♪ You wish he'd still pick up his phone ♪ ♪ I'm way too drunk and so alone ♪ ♪ So alone ♪ ♪ So alone, ah ♪ ♪ I don't wanna hear it, say you're okay ♪ ♪ Even if it means you're lying ♪ ♪ I don't wanna hear it, say you're okay ♪ ♪ Even if it means you're lying ♪ ♪ I don't wanna hear it, say you're okay ♪ ♪ Even if it means you're lying ♪ ♪ I don't wanna hear it, say you're okay ♪ ♪ Even if it means you're lying ♪ ♪ I don't wanna hear it, say you're okay ♪ ♪ Even if it means you're lying ♪ ♪ I don't wanna hear it, say you're okay ♪ ♪ Even if it means you're lying ♪ ♪♪ - My name is Lawrence Shaw.

And the film piece, my film piece is "If You Feel Alone at Parties", my brother's music video.

When I was younger, we both make videos together.

One of the first things I actually thought about when I heard the song is it sounds like how VHS looks.

So I went with a VHS, which eventually morphed into a film grain look.

But I wanted to, like, the song ha s such audio texture to it.

So, I want to complement it with visual texture, even down to the film grain, was all intentional.

Every time I usually listen to music I always see visuals or see colors or see scenarios.

And so we first played me this probably maybe a year or two before we started the music video, we knew that it was going to be like one of the hits on the on the album.

With us being brothers, we're already on the same wavelength, so there's not a whole lot of explaining to do unless he has a firm idea of what he wants it to be, He'll be just like, whatever comes to your head, you know, just write it or write it out, and I just bring it to him.

Like, this is kind of what I want the story to be because he's always really wants to make sure that there's a story behind the music video.

There's not just things happening.

I pitched him the story about the song's called "If You Feel Alone at Parties", so it makes sense to kind of kind of, you know, on the nose.

But we wanted to have somebody who feels alone.

You know, the party is crowded.

He still feels alone.

And there's someone in there still trying to draw him out of that loneliness.

But no matter, despite her best efforts, he still feels alone at the end of it.

[film projector clicks] [phone dings] Oh, excuse me.

You dropped this.

Oh my God.

Thank you.

My daughter's home sick, and she really wanted that soup.

You just saved me a trip back to the store.

Oh, it was no problem.

You about to take a trolley ride?

Oh, yeah, But I think I'm going to walk instead.

Oh, well, here, let me get your ticket as a way of saying thank you for helping me.

Here you go.

That should get you there and back whenever you're going.

Oh, thank you so much.

Oh, it's nothing.

It's just a little thank you for helping me out and just repaying the kindness.

Good luck with the rest of your night.

"Perform acts of kindness and you shall receive good fortune."

All right.

That'll be a dollar sweetie.

Oh, yeah, There you go.

Uh-huh.

Wait, wait, Wait.

Oh.

Oh.

Here, let me help you with that.

Oh, thank you.

Why don't you sit in my seat?

Thank you.

My feet are killing me.

Ma'am, if you prefer my seat's a little bit closer to the exit, you can have my seat.

Both of you are so nice.

Oh, that's all right, sir.

She said she'd already sit in my seat.

Wouldn't someone in your condition prefer to sit closer to the exit, though?

Fellas, I just want to sit down.

It's really nothing to fight over.

Look, sir, I see what you're trying to do, but she already said she'd sit in my seat.

So why don't you let the lady sit down?

That's right, fellas.

She want to sit her [bleep] down and y'all sit down, too!

Ma'am, I was just trying to show here to my seat.

My bad.

Catch.

That's it goddoggit.

I done told you we on a schedule.

Get yo [bleep] up out my bus.

Gas is too [bleep] high to be playing!

And you, sit yo' [bleep] down!

What you clappin' fo?

Okay.

Okay.

Oh.

Oh.

Here, your bag.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, there you are.

You're right on time.

Did you run here?

You know there's a trolley.

Yeah, but thought I'd get in some last minute training.

You're always training.

So really, what is there to fight about?

You'd be surprised.

Well, I hope you worked up an appetite.

They say this place has the best noodles in town.

Look, they just cleared off a table for us.

Let's eat, my treat this time.

Well, you're gonna have to fight me for it.

Cheers.

Oh my god.

All right, all right.

I've got a good one.

What vegetable is the best at Kung Fu?

I don't know, what?

Broccoli.

[fake laughs] You get it, like Bruce Lee.

That has got to be the worst joke I've ever heard.

Like, your Kung Fu is almost as bad.

Oh, yeah?

Is that a challenge?

I hope you guys enjoyed.

Here's the check whenever you're ready.

So anyways, that was probably the worst joke I've ever-- I gotta pay.

What?

I'm feeling generous and I would like to treat my friend.

But we agreed this was on me.

I invited you.

You don't understand.

I have to pay.

Hey, how you guys doing?

Doing good man.

Man, these martial club dudes are insane.

Yeah, it's just a shame this type of stuff doesn't happen in real life.

Am I right?

The rice, is it slappin'?

I try to make it extra special.

A little somethin' somethin' for 'em, you know what I mean?

Good?

If I could just get yo number.

Oh, gross, you perv.

What are you doing under there?

Hey, that's cheating.

Hey, excuse me.

Can I help you with something?

[Both] I'm ready to pay.

Oh, that gentleman over there took care of it.

I hope you enjoyed good fortune.

Now, please don't come back.

Just give us a whole bunch of different faces.

Just give a variety of, as mean as you feel like.

Oh, yeah?

Well, is that a challenge?

[dish crashes] Keep going.

I'm not gonna drink this.

[chuckles] You don't have to, just hold it up.

Oh, you perv.

What do you think you're doing?

You look like you're having so much fun.

Action!

Oh, I didn't get hit.

All right, back to one.

Yeah.

How do you feel about that?

Awful.

Okay, we can-- Please don't be like this when you grow up.

We got to get out of here.

Set.

Aaah!

- I've shot a lot of things kind of guerrilla style in Memphis, you know, just like on the go and what we can get away with.

Like, there's one shot on the trolley where my character gets on the trolley and then later gets thrown off the trolley.

But we did that all in one take.

So it was like I waited at the trolley stop and we set up the camera, the trolley pulled up and I got on.

It was late at night.

There wasn't anybody else on there.

I got on and I told the driver I was like, Hey, I'll pay, but can you just open the door and I'm just going to get right off?

And she said, Sure, whatever.

You know, she just probably thought I was crazy or something.

One of my favorite things about Memphis, I guess, is it's still small enough film wise that most people are excited by, like, the prospect of you're filming a movie in town, like it's like still neat, right?

I think in bigger markets where they film more stuff, they're a little more jaded by it.

They're like, Oh gosh, this happens all the time.

It's kind of lost the magic, I guess.

[film projector clicking] ♪ Never been to California ♪ ♪ I don't know, but I'd sure like to go ♪ ♪ I think Arkansas is nice ♪ ♪ It's all I know ♪ ♪ Stayed at home and work for the family ♪ ♪ Clocking in to sell my soul ♪ ♪ They say Arkansas is nice ♪ ♪ It's all they know ♪ ♪ Got a friend down in Mississippi ♪ ♪ He plays keys at the watering hole ♪ ♪ He said the west was always fine ♪ ♪ Ooh, I'm lazy, I'm a fool ♪ ♪ I'm a fool for ya ♪ ♪ I'm so crazy for staying home ♪ ♪ Sometimes, I wonder what it's like ♪ ♪ To move away from ya ♪ ♪ Though it's always been a dream ♪ ♪ Just a dream ♪ ♪ Met a man and he's my baby ♪ ♪ Been with him for a year or so ♪ ♪ He thinks Arkansas is nice ♪ ♪ It's all he knows ♪ ♪ Late at night or when the morning's early ♪ ♪ I hear songs on my radio ♪ ♪ None say Arkansas is nice ♪ ♪ But they don't know ♪ ♪ Things are hard when you're passing twenty ♪ ♪ Never been outside of the line ♪ ♪ I wanna see the state of gold ♪ ♪ Ooh, I'm lazy, I'm a fool ♪ ♪ I'm a fool for ya ♪ ♪ I'm so crazy for staying home ♪ ♪ Sometimes, I wonder what it's like ♪ ♪ To move away from ya ♪ ♪ Though it's always been a dream ♪ ♪ Just some old dream ♪ ♪ Ooh, I'm lazy, I'm a fool ♪ ♪ I'm a fool for ya ♪ ♪ I'm so crazy for staying home ♪ ♪ Sometimes, I wonder what it's like ♪ ♪ To move away from ya ♪ ♪ Though it's always been a dream ♪ ♪ Just a dream ♪ ♪ Never been to California ♪ ♪ I don't know, but I'd sure like to go ♪♪ - Bailey, you know, is from Arkansas and has deep family roots there.

And so the song had like a really different layered meaning for her.

We ended up just driving around listening to the track kind of through her old stomping grounds and stopping by all these different places.

And, you know, I got to hear all these different that were meaningful to her life and just her family.

And so we ended up picking locations that were, you know, meaningful to her.

And a lot of her friends that she grew up with, and we're really close with coming to participate in the experience of making it who are meaningful to her journey as well.

So it's like across the board.

It was a video that really felt like home.

It was a it was a sweet experience participating, for sure.

[film projector clicks] - Where to begin.

- If you look at how Memphis developed as a city, with the river being the point where the founders saw the bluff.

Cotton traders were using the barges and the steamboats along the Mississippi River right at that bluff, and they decided, Hey, this is a great place to build a city.

Even after slavery cotton was still king.

Earliest neighborhoods in Memphis were coming from that river.

And then you started to see areas grow east.

In some of the areas now that are incorporated in the city of Memphis were more rural areas and blacks always lived there because they were farming.

Neighborhoods that we know that are built for African-Americans around the same time were really towns.

- Klondike is one of Memphis' well-kept secrets.

- So it was expressly built for African-Americans.

And it's identified even in the zoning and planning documents as a colored subdivision.

That was unique because if you're thinking late 19th century, just a few decades prior, African-Americans were enslaved in the US and particularly in this part of the country.

- How many folks coming from off of plantations had the resources to to purchase vehicles?

People would have to go outside unless they were farming.

You know, they would have to go outside of this community to find work.

And if they didn't have the streetcar, they would have to walk.

One of the elders of this congregation, he grew up right on Speed Street, one block over, and he would talk about how he met his wife on that streetcar.

Ridin' that streetcar what was really their connection to to the world, or better yet, to to the heart of Memphis.

- My father worked.

He worked construction.

They built that bridge going across to Arkansas.

I lived here for 85 years cause we moved here when I was three.

My mother and father got tired of balming and sharecropping and we moved to Klondike.

We first started out rentin' and the man wanted to sell.

And he sold to my dad because we were already in the house.

And my dad bought it.

- Klondike was one of the first African-American communities where home ownership took place.

- When blacks purchase homes out of slavery or in the early 20th century, late 19th century, it was from saving.

You know, in Memphis, we think about our black bank that was established, Tri-state Bank.

It was 1946.

Before that, there was some effort by black businessmen in the '20s and '30s.

So prior to the establishment of Tri-state Bank, a mortgage company.

And many of those mortgages they were trying to make were in Klondike because it was a black area and they were trying to encourage homeownership without people having to save cash their entire lives.

- Many folk worked hard to buy houses and to buy land.

- Even though these people had modest income, they were mostly abandoned homes.

- Now, when we look at it, we see the plots of land are small and not very big.

But the truth of the matter, they were valuable for these folks settled here who who made this place home.

My connection to Klondike is because I pastor a church that been here since 1904.

This church is about 117 years old.

And it's been sitting right here in Klondike.

Never been anywhere else because it was committed to this community.

[vocalizing] - Early black churches, unofficially were community development financial institutions.

They didn't have access to financial institutions that we know today.

And so churches, they were the societies that provide aid to their membership and even to the larger community who were not members of their churches.

- It allowed for generational wealth.

And that that became really important in the establishment of this community.

So the middle class came to Klondike.

How did it come?

Because they could afford it.

- They had a more diverse mixed income neighborhood because blacks were segregated, and so all blacks, regardless of income, had to live in segregated areas.

- They were known artisans, doctors, lawyers, judges, politicians, schoolteachers, musicians.

Klondike has has really given Memphis more than Memphis recognized.

- Klondike had everything you needed as a family.

- Again, you know, Klondike, the gold mine.

That what it is, it's the gold mine.

And why would it be a gold mine?

Because in North Memphis, they had all these factories and those places existed for what, 40, 50 years - It was the first time in history for Southern blacks to enter factory jobs.

That put them solidly into a middle class status.

- With all of these jobs and industry in these factories, it provided opportunity for transportation.

What does cars do?

It opened up a whole new world.

Now we hear stories of students not just going to Owens and LeMoyne.

They were going to Tennessee State, they were going to Jackson State.

So now you were traveling across the country.

- So the community grew because of employment at Firestone and the various plants in the area.

But it also grew because of the educational component that we had.

We had almost a teacher on every street.

- Klondike originally was on Olympic, it was elementary and high all together.

They tore it down and built Klondike School that was in '38.

- Klondike was an all black school for black children.

- I went there the first year.

I went to Klondike in first grade.

- So many folk went to Klondike and they will go from Klondike Elementary to Manassas.

Manassas was one of the only black schools here in this area that African-Americans can go to.

It launched so many people into their careers and their professions.

And so then that life was lived right here.

- I'm sitting at the place where I was born, 1936.

My father built the house on this land in the '20s.

I lived here until I graduated Manassas High in 1955.

Ten years later, they tore down my parents house and built Northside High School.

It was the first school that was going to be integrated.

- The change in the community was a gradual change because once desegregation kind of took hold, people who were living in Klondike and who were dedicated to maintaining the community, they ended up moving to other areas.

- So part of the integration, it impacted the black schools here in this community.

- And it's not popular for people to say today, but honestly, the desegregation or the integration of schools for black neighborhoods and we can look back on this now, was one of the worst things that could have happened.

- When my kids were in school they were pushing integration.

My kids had to get on a bus from Klondike to predominantly white schools, and now those predominately white schools are black.

- So now Northside is closed.

Klondike Elementary is a charter school that has only a fraction of its students.

Manassas is fighting for survival.

A school that had graduating classes of 400, now have less than 400 students.

We abandoned the community that birthed us.

- And so that started this decline.

And then after the assassination of King in '68, you start to see a lot of white flight from the city and who was left, those with the least discretionary income and those who were aging in place.

- And so the struggle out of that, you get in early '80s, late '70s, early '80s, you see all of these factories start closing.

- You look at the image where Firestone plant set, it's a smokestack.

Think about a death of neighborhoods, and that's all they left was the monument of what was a affluence for many families is just a smokestack.

- The wealth of Klondike seemed to have evaporated.

So much of the abandonment has come at a cost, a cost of blight, cost of crime, a cost of economic oppression and suppression, a course of absentee of political power.

Those who birthed this community, the founders, the people who was in its embryonic stages didn't give up and sacrifice for maybe, what, 120 years.

for now it to end.

Can we really afford to just tell the story?

Or are we called to breathe new life?

- My name is Jordan Danelz.

I'm a Memphian, born and raised and a filmmaker by trade.

And I came across the Klondike story from Quincy Morris, who runs the Klondike Smokey City Development Corporation, and she was in partnership with The Works Roshun Austin and Steve Barlow to kind of talk about how we can re-imagine a neighborhood that has kind of been forgotten.

And it's an interesting neighborhood because it's one that has been predominantly an African-American homeownership neighborhood.

And historically, I think it was one of the first after Orange Mound.

So I kind of got lost in all the interviews that I had captured, and they were all interesting and beautiful and different in their own ways.

But I couldn't quite find, like the the unifying thread that tied it all together.

And then I met Reverend Walter Greene at Friendship.

Now, when I started my interview with him, I knew, okay, it just started clicking.

All the other interviews, all the other stories sort of start to fit along a timeline he was presenting to me.

And when I left that interview, I felt so much more confident about the project.

You know, Indie Memphis, first of all, it's like such an important organization here in Memphis because be able to see work like this up on a big screen with an audience where people are genuinely engaged and want to listen and they, and they're there because they know the neighborhoods and they know the city, is kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity because this can play in other festivals and it doesn't have the same the same kind of resonance, you know.

- (male announcer) th e Indie Memphis Film Festival takes place every fall with parties, music and new films from around the globe.

The 2024 festival takes place Thursday, November 14th through Sunday, November 17th.

Movie screenings and other events, including the Youth Film Festival, happen throughout the year.

So there's always an Indie Memphis coming up soon.