[lounge music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - The best response you can have to a payoff in a thriller is someone goes, "Oh, right, I forgot, of course..." [multiple voices chattering] [Narrator] "On Story" offers a look inside the creative process from today's leading writers, creators, and filmmakers.

All of our content is recorded live at Austin Film Festival and at our year-round events.

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[waves] [kids screaming] [wind] [witch cackling] [sirens wail] [gunshots] [dripping] [suspenseful music] [telegraph beeping, typing] [piano gliss] From Austin Film Festival, this is "On Story."

A look inside the creative process from today's leading writers, creators, and filmmakers.

This week's "On Story," "Miss Juneteenth" writer and director, Channing Godfrey Peoples.

- I'll start out as the architect and I'll end up the gardener because I think at some point, the characters will start speaking for themselves and I got to know Turquoise so well, there was things that she was doing, I was like, "No, don't do that."

I didn't have the wisdom, originally when I sat down as a architect to come up with that, so we gotta figure out what's the in-between of those.

[paper crumples] [typing] [typewriter ding] [Narrator] This week on "On Story," Channing Godfrey Peoples discusses her feature debut, "Miss Juneteenth" and her work as a multi-hyphenate, independent filmmaker.

[typewriter ding] - When did you first fall in love with the cinema?

- I grew up in Black Fort Worth, on the historic South Side of Fort Worth, Texas and my mom would take us to a small community theater that she was really active in called Sojourner Truth, it was just the community that came together to put on like Black plays and I got to see like complex Black plays, which now I'm like, I was seeing Purlie, you know when I was like seven or eight, you know?

And they also did this really extraordinary thing where they would bring Black actors through this theater, so like it's my humble brag, but like I have a photo with like Ruby D and Ossie Davis, you know when I was little-bitty and at the time, you know, I didn't understand that, that was, those seeds were being planted to where I would end up here.

There was no infrastructure as you know, for, you know, young Black people in cinema, like I never even, I didn't know what a director was on a movie.

I'm just being honest.

And I certainly didn't see Black folks, you know, in that position, especially not Black women and so, I think I later came to cinema through a non-traditional route.

I just wanted to be an actor and that was because you know when I saw those plays, I got to see the actors out front, you know?

And they could inhabit the space, and I ended up going out to California after I finished college and trying my hand at acting, and I would see some of the parts that would come through, especially for Black women and I was like, "Wow, like this is not like the you know, what I had in my head."

And a big part of that was I also fell in love with like literature, like the literary grace, like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, and Gloria Naylor, J. California Cooper and they really created complex Black stories with Black women at the forefront and I ended up in it as an actor, and I got really fascinated with everything that was going on behind the camera.

- So, let's talk about "Miss Juneteenth."

- I literally shot that film in the neighborhood that I grew up.

The juke joint in the film is a place I was sneaking into from like, you know, as soon as I could from a young age, it's multi-generational.

I'll go in there and I'll see my uncle or a cousin, or whatever, and you know, it's just, it feels the film, while not specifically autobiographical, it really, it feels autobiographical in a way.

My mother was single for much of my life and while she wasn't waiting tables in a juke joint, you know I saw her work odd-jobs coming up and I saw her try to keep her dream alive, like she was into the arts and then Miss Juneteenth, I grew up going to every year, I just remember it being so impactful for me because as a young Black girl, I got to see like all these young Black women just glide across the stage, like all shapes, sizes, colors, hair textures and like I look at that now, and I'm like, "Wow, of course like I have this appreciation for Black women."

Like I was surrounded by you know greatness in that respect and so Turquoise came about because I'd gone to the Juneteenth committee and Mrs. Opal Lee, who everyone should know by now, who's the godmother of Juneteenth and you know made it possible to become a federal holiday.

I went to her and her granddaughter Diana said, "I need to do, you know, Neil and I need to do research, so we need to get in touch with some Miss Juneteenth's."

And they said, "Oh, you should talk to this one, this one, this one, that one."

I said, "Okay."

And I was like, "So," and I was kinda going down their little roster or whatever, I was like, "Well, where is this one?

Where is that one?"

"We don't know what happened to that one."

And I was like, "Wow, what about if there's a "Miss Juneteenth" we don't exactly know what happened to."

And then Turquoise was born.

♪ Let our rejoicing rise ♪ ♪ High as the listening skies ♪ ♪ Let it resound ♪ ♪ Loud as the rolling sea ♪ ♪ Sing a song full of the faith ♪ ♪ That the dark past has taught us ♪ ♪ Sing a song full of the hope ♪ ♪ That the present has brought us ♪ ♪ Facing the rising... ♪ - And then I always remember my mom and my aunts, and their friends, gathering around the kitchen table and telling stories of like adventures in their life, ambitions they had, dreams they had, things that weren't going right or wrong and you know, a love that disappointed them, you know?

And so, I just took all of those things and it just became "Miss Juneteenth," and it's really not a surprise, like I think about it, as I was growing up, I remember my grandmother would make quilts and she'd pull stuff from everywhere, my grandmother, she was a pretty incredible woman, she had like her masters, you know at a time where Black women, you know we often weren't afforded education, but she would still, like she would can and she would quilt, and she had a garden, and pigs, and chickens, and all that in the backyard, so there was a scrappy way she would pull things together and I think that's how "Miss Juneteenth" was pulled together, honestly.

- Not only is it the story of Turquoise and Kai, but it really is a love story to Fort Worth, right?

And as you started to think about putting it together, did you already sort of have a sense that, "Okay, I'm gonna feature these particular spots."

Or, "I'm gonna make sure that we see this thing in Fort Worth."

Or did it just sort of organically come as you got on the ground and start shooting?

- I mean, 90% I knew, 10% was organic, when the producer stepped in, you know there were places we might not have been able to get to, they would come and say, "Uh, you know, there would be a more ease of production if we did this."

But it started with the locations, is started with that juke joint.

[upbeat music] - Where's your homework?

Last day of school next week, you better hope your grades turn out right.

- Momma, I'm old enough to stay home by myself.

[can clicking open] - I'ma bring you a plate in a hour or so, you'll be hungry by then.

Get all that work done, don't come out until I come get you.

- And it started with the funeral home, which is owned by family friends, which coincidentally, my mom would you know, either they would pick us up in the limo, like you saw from school.

- Damn, who died?

- On the real?

I'd roll that thing if it was candy coated.

[Girl] Hold up, is that your momma?

- Our childcare was at the funeral home and so we'd walk in, we'd see like I think it is the scene where Turquoise is working on the body, we see our granny, you know who's everybody's granny, working on the body, you know, so it was no big deal.

It was so funny, I took my crew in, right before to scout the location and I forgot everybody's not used to just walking in a funeral home and my granny was just in there working on the body, "Hey, y'all."

And they just were all like freaked out, I said, "Okay, I forgot this needed to come with a trigger warning."

[laughing] You know, Because it was no big deal to me, but that all you know it was like atmosphere came first and then I knew, maybe it came first, maybe it came at the same time 'cause I knew I wanted to write about a Miss Juneteenth, you know?

I just didn't know who she was.

[typewriter ding] - So, she's born, but now you gotta go through the script writing process, right?

Of really completely developing right who she is.

How long was that process?

How arduous was that process?

- I had the initial ideas, you know, just like the little seeds we all have, a decade ago.

It took us seven years, right?

To get it up the hill and made, and we worked on the script up until production, and through production, so it was never finished, you know?

Courtney Ware, our editor, is here, we worked on it in the edit, you know?

I can't look at it anymore because I'll probably work on it [audience laughing] as I'm looking at it.

[laughing] So, I can't even tell you a number of drafts, I wouldn't know.

- But it's interesting because I think that's so important what you said, the seeds were planted a decade ago and it took you seven years to get it to where it is now and I think sometimes as filmmakers, especially young filmmakers, you don't understand how long it takes, especially a passion project.

- The first draft to that script was just so much worlds, like I wanted to see everything in Black Fort Worth, okay?

[relaxed music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [truck door opening] - And then we started peeling back the layers of what the film was and what was it in service of Turquoise's story?

[typewriter ding] I would say probably the story that I need to feel like always needs to go next is just, like it's something is like my heart beats fast when I think about it, you know it just doesn't leave me, like there's a story in my head right now that is not on the page, that I keep, you know the little notes in your phone or whatever?

I just make notes, like where I'll learn more about the character, little bits of dialogue, things like that, something that will inspire me.

- Were there ever moments where Channing said, "You know what?

I don't think this is gonna happen."

- Never because we were really approaching in this really scrappy way, we were gonna do it on an iPhone or a 7D, or whatever it was, I had the locations already, you know I had everything, that to me was everything.

I had the community folks because you know if you haven't seen the film like there's actors you know, who we maybe have seen before, but there's also community people we just said, "Can you come into the juke joint for an hour or so and just sit there like you'd normally do?"

That was important to me for the authenticity of the film, like I had to get that neighborhood right.

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ - See you later, Terry.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [relaxed music] [Announcer] The last song, finish your drink, Faith.

♪ ♪ - We kept at it, we did all kinds of things.

When I said I have an awesome creative partner, Neil was a champion for the film, he's also a writer/director, but he came on as a producer, he learned producing to make this film, you know?

We would just, you know we'd say, "Okay, we're doing it."

And then there'd be a little seed that would push it forward.

[typewriter ding] [Ya'Ke] Next, I wanna talk about the casting process.

- Yeah, sure.

- You know, I've been a huge fan of Nicole Beharie since I saw her in "Shame" and the question that is one, how did she become involved with the project?

But two, what was you all's working relationship like?

How did you build that character together as creative collaborators?

- My descriptions are so descriptive and specific, and especially in "Miss Juneteenth," so you know, gratefully, we got to a place where Nicole you know, we were like Turquoise is on the page, you know?

And what I wanna do is a director is give room for these quiet moments, for her to actually be able to live and walk in the character, but we didn't diverge from the dialogue.

- Pageant ain't that far away.

- Well, then you do it.

- I did.

I am a woman, phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman, that's me.

- I also knew the way people walk and talk in the South Side of Fort Worth, and I could not, you know diverge from, you know the, "Yeah, we goin over there, we goin in there."

The exact dialogue or dialect, if you can call it that.

- It's a dialect.

- Is it a dialect?

Okay, to me it isn't, you know, it's just how we talk.

It's on the page, it's written that way, you know?

In a Zora Neale Hurston kinda way and I'm not comparing myself to Zora Neale Hurston, okay?

But what I'm saying is, my daughter's name is Zora.

Ai, ai, ai.

But I'm saying she said, when I read her words, I was like, "Oh, you can use dialect on the page?"

And so, that's what we did and when she came down, when Nicole came down, we brought her down early and she's actually a native, she's from the South Carolina and so, there was some experience of having been in the South, you know?

But we brought her down early because Texas is different.

- It is.

- And we went through the way folks dance, we went through the juke joint and we sat her down with our dialect coach, and when I say that, it was my friend who had never really left Fort Worth.

[audience laughing] And she took lessons from her, you know?

And was able to hear, and she's very you know, she's as an actor, she's a brilliant actor, you know?

She can pick up things so quickly and so that's how we did it, you know?

And I knew her skillset as you did, from you know, watching her over the years and so it was like, "Okay, you have an actor who has that skillset, who's brilliant at what they do, now you just have to nail down the specifics."

And there were some magic moments that happened where I would just let the camera breathe on her.

There's one moment where she's sitting there and she's thinking, and we were in the editing room, my editor Courtney Ware and I, but that moment ended up in the film and it was just her, when I'd go to my cinematographer and whisper, "Roll the camera."

Just sitting there... being.

- Another thing that I loved about the film is this idea of generational sort of trauma, right?

The relationship with Turquoise and her mom, and you feel that she wants her mom to look at her in a certain way, but her mom is dealing with her own trauma or pain.

- Was I a good mother?

- That your lick talking?

- I know you think I was hard on you.

You made it through.

I wasn't surprised when you won that crown.

You got your looks from me.

- In many ways, that's why she's now looking at her daughter as a way of saying, "You know what?

I'm not going to do you the same way that my mom did me, I'm gonna make sure that you succeed."

And as you were again, going through the drafts, was that something that you were always conscious of?

- Oh, absolutely.

It took a lot of like processing, you know.

Like emotional, psychologically to sift through all that with the character, but we all go through that as writers, but I think for me as a filmmaker, I'm always looking at family relationship and generational, and generational, what do we call em?

You know generational curse.

- Curses, yeah.

- What we pass down, what we receive and what we choose to leave behind, you know?

That's always such a big thing for me, I grew up in a family of you know story tellers, like I have an aunt that's in her 80's and she's like a griot, you know?

She got some kind of certification or something as a griot.

I don't know what it is, but you know it's, you know there's a storytelling tradition, you know?

In the family and so I'm always looking at how the generations are impacted.

[typewriter ding] - Another thing that struck me as I was watching it again this morning was the relationship between Turquoise and-- - Ronnie.

- Ronnie, right?

And the way in which there's this sort of dance, right?

Where they're in a relationship one minute and in the end they're not, and she really wants him to sort of step up, and like be the father that she knows maybe he can be, but he kinda does, but he can't.

- Oh no, it's my story, it's my momma's story, it's my grandma's, you know?

It's just stories I've heard along the way, I think a big thing for me as a filmmaker is I never, it's important for me not to write in black and white, like I have to write in shades of gray.

Turquoise and Ronnie's relationship really was focused on, we kept asking ourself the question and I mean, you know my producers who were giving notes, my trusted folks in the edit room, like they're both trying to figure out how do they parent?

They both love this kid immensely, but like how do they parent?

And how do they maintain who they are as individuals?

And it's so funny because "Miss Juneteenth" was written before I became a parent, you know?

And after I had my daughter, it just like turned on it's head, you know?

Even the approach, like at script-level, Turquoise was kinda like this, you know I saw her tougher and then I had my kid, and it was like, I experienced both this joy and this terror right at the same time, as soon as she arrived, I was experiencing a love I'd never experienced before in this way, you know?

But I also was like, "How do I provide for this?"

You know I have to, I need to provide for this kid for life, you know?

And so I intimately understood what Turquoise, and Ronnie were experiencing in the film in a different way, so I think it became a more subtler nuanced version because I was experiencing it in real time.

- How does Kendrick Sampson get involved?

- Kendrick didn't immediately come to mind for this, I think I got familiar with his work later and then when we were doing auditions, like I had, I will tell you and this is, I was being precious about this, like, everybody had to read and at first I started going down that road, and then I was like, "Wow, I won't be able to see if people can walk and talk in this region, I won't even see how vulnerable and nuanced and subtle people can be."

And it scared me, and so we did a U-turn, and everybody that's in the film read, and I saw Kendrick read for Ronnie, and I was like, "Whoa."

Because I had so many reads for Ronnie because you could take "Miss Juneteenth" and it could be an entire different movie, and I think a lot of people expected it to be at first, you know?

Like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em kinda thing, right?

And maybe at some level I did, you know?

But then I saw Kendrick's read and he had that subtlety, and that nuance in the shades of gray, and I was like, "Oh, he can do it."

- Where's the money?

- You know I had to pay some of that restitution.

- We waited three hours.

- What good I'ma be if I'm back in jail, huh?

- All the girls in their pretty dresses and she had to walk the [bleep] stage in her shorts.

- She don't even wanna do this.

No sense in spending all that money on her dress.

- My money?

Where's the rest?

- Turq.

My homeboy... he put his body shop up for sale.

He throwing in his tools and everything.

I couldn't pass that up.

[typewriter ding] - I have to say, I love that ending because for me, I know it's called "Miss Juneteenth," but that's not really, it's not really about her winning that, right?

It's about her mom accepting her for who she is.

- I think at some point you know, the characters will start speaking for themselves and I got to know Turquoise so well, there was things that she was doing, I was like, "No, don't do that."

Just like the end, the end was not originally like that and it just felt so false, I sat down to do a rewrite at some point and then I was like, "This girl's gonna lose."

It just hit me, you know?

And it wasn't anything I consciously said should happen, I was like, "This is about to happen and I don't wanna write it."

And I wrote it, and she did, and it made perfect sense because her and Turquoise end up with something greater, you know than the win, they came to each other, you know?

And I initially didn't, I didn't have the wisdom, originally when I sat down as the architect to come up with that.

♪ Good news ♪ ♪ Good news ♪ ♪ Brother, the good news ♪ ♪ The good news ♪ ♪ You ain't got nothing to worry about ♪ ♪ You ain't got no fears to fear ♪ ♪ Just open up your heart ♪ ♪ And let your worries disappear ♪ ♪ You can lay that burden down ♪ ♪ You can stomp it to the ground ♪ ♪ You can put it beneath your shoe ♪ ♪ Let me tell you bout the good news ♪ ♪ Good news ♪ ♪ Ooh the good news ♪ ♪ The good news ♪ ♪ Lord the good news ♪ ♪ The good news ♪ ♪ Sister the good news ♪ ♪ The good news ♪ - So, when them dance team tryouts?

♪ You ain't go no place to hide ♪ ♪ Come let me tell you bout the good news ♪ ♪ Down by the river side ♪ [typewriter ding] [Narrator] You've been watching On Directing "Miss Juneteenth" A Conversation with Channing Godfrey Peoples on "On Story."

"On Story" is part of a growing number of programs in Austin Film Festival's On Story project.

That also includes the On Story radio program, podcast, book series, and the On Story archive, accessible through the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.

To find out more about On Story and Austin Film Festival, visit onstory.tv or austinfilmfestival.com.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [projector clicking] [typing] [typewriter ding] [projector dies]