(bright music) (cheerful music) - Welcome back to TVFilm.

I'm your host, Jermaine Wells.

We have a great pair of Capital Region focused films this week, so let's jump right in.

We'll first start with The Aura of Upstate, created by Evens Angulo-Duvil.

This is a project dedicated to shining a light on Upstate New York through the forms of podcasts, documentary, and award-winning animation.

Upstate New York has a lot to offer, and this is Evens' love letter to home.

Let's enjoy.

(electricity buzzing) (cars honking) (air whooshing) - My name is Evens Angulo-Duvil and the name of my film is The Aura of Upstate.

The Aura of Upstate is a project that's dedicated to the community of Upstate New York.

Essentially what I did was I interviewed individuals who live within the Capital Region and I took pieces of our conversations that I had with each and every one of them and turned that into an animated film highlighting upstate New York and what we have to offer as a community.

This project it's a bit unique in the sense that there's three different mediums that kind of make up the show.

There's the podcast portion where I interview individuals within Upstate New York.

Along with that there's the documentary which follows my journey of bringing this project from concept to finished product.

And you just watched the animated film.

Every conversation I had with each one of the guests, I wanted the audience to learn something from it.

They're talking about the business that they have the impact they have on the community, their background or the city.

I wanted to focus on trying to educate the audience in some way, shape or form while also being entertained.

My view of upstate New York has changed drastically, honestly.

When I was in college and going to school with kids from the city, for example, they'd always tell me, "What's in upstate New York?"

And I would like, "Nothing really, I don't know what to tell you," but after working on this project and forcing myself to go out and talk to people one-on-one and grow this project, I saw that we have like a lot of talent.

We have a lot of history.

We have a lot of stories to tell.

And I'm excited to continue doing that because we have a lot to offer.

- I'm a DJ.

I am also a filmmaker and photographer much like Pat.

- There's a process within my head mostly of trying to find an engaging looking character where if you were just looking at its silhouette, it would still stand out.

Like you would be able to point out who that character is, which is something I learned in school that's like very important when you're trying to create your own entity so to speak.

So I just kind of continuously play around with that, play around with the colors.

Just play around with every portion until I find something that I like and I feel the audience would enjoy looking at.

I mean, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember.

Ever since I was little, I was taking binders out of my mom's libraries and filling them up with characters and writing scripts on loose leaf paper.

So it's been my dream to make my own animated series since the age of 10 and that's kind of been my north star.

I want people to, to understand that you don't need a huge budget to make something impactful.

You don't have to go to a big city to find inspiration, to find resources.

You could start today with what you have.

You know, you could start very small.

You don't need a lot to make something huge and make something impactful that people will resonate with.

(rhythmic music) - Up next, we have an ode to an upstate civil rights icon in Tribute to Dr.

Alice Green.

Dr.

Green was a tireless advocate for uplifting marginalized voices, social justice and community empowerment.

Produced by Mark Bobb-Semple after Green's passing in 2024, This is a documentary highlighting the profound impact she left on her Capital Region community.

Let's take a look.

(bright music) - Growing up, you always heard the name Dr.

Alice Green.

She had a great impact in my life.

I never saw her allow someone to tell her no, so she was the voice of the voiceless.

- We was rough guys back then, but when we got around Ms.

Green, we acted right because she, it was just something about her that we just, we kind of didn't want to disappoint her.

You know?

She came from the Adirondacks.

She wasn't no inner city woman.

She didn't grow up in in it, but she came and she dedicated her life to working with inner city people.

- She had a spirit of a fighter, unapologetic about what she believed in and whether or not it made you uncomfortable to acknowledge and understand history, truth, justice.

- Dr.

Green created the space for people to come in and share their stories and they could come to her and have those conversations.

And that's invaluable, especially in a neighborhood that doesn't have the resources to sometimes advocate or fight back for themselves.

Dr.

Green was that advocate and that person who could help them get their voices heard and to find some justice.

- I would describe Dr.

Green as a force.

She was one who wouldn't back down and she didn't put a finger to the wind to do that.

She did what she believed was right and she was fierce about her convictions.

- In 1984, Jesse Davis, a member of the Black community, a person with mental illness, was unjustly shot to death by the Albany Police Department.

And Alice Green led a community fight for justice and accountability.

I think it was a starting point for creating a whole set of institutions to fight for that kind of accountability.

And of course it was also the start of the Center for Law and Justice, which was became the leading organization in that fight.

- I first met her in 1997 when I interviewed for and then got the job of legal director of the Center for Law and Justice.

I remember the first day of work on the job it was Martin Luther King Day.

And I thought it was going to be a normal day.

I just showed up.

Well, Alice had plans.

So we walked to the Capitol and we were supposed to unfurl a banner that said, "No more prisons."

And we were standing on the balcony and we unfurled this banner and Alice and Charles start chanting, "No more prisons, no more prisons."

They got arrested.

Like Governor Pataki stopped speaking.

There's a huge hubbub.

And all of a sudden I hear Alice saying, "Oh, it's okay.

We've got our lawyer with us."

And I'm like, "Who's their lawyer?"

And then I realized it was me.

That was my first indication that this was going to be no ordinary job.

- We started doing these... We would dress up in prison outfits and we would crash all kinds of events and just to let them know that we wanted prison reform.

We went into several legislative sessions and made a big noise.

I'm surprised we never got arrested, but I think because Alice was with us and they knew Alice was not one to back down.

For me, it was empowering to be with her and to see that she dared to do those kinds of things.

She was fearless.

- Law enforcement assisted diversion.

It's a initiative with APD to direct people to services instead of arresting our way out of social problems.

So when we tried to do the work, Dr.

Green was incredibly supportive the whole way through.

- Years ago when you came home from incarceration, you didn't have resources, they give you $40 and a bus ticket and that's all you had.

You know, you report to your parole officer within 24 hours.

But when I came to Albany, I seen a whole new different way and approach that Dr.

Green had to adults coming home.

She wanted to know how are you doing.

And she wanted to know exactly if you were scared of this new transition.

And then she'll coach you through that process.

- As a formerly incarcerated individual, I think that it was important for me to be empowered, to have a voice.

So when I left the Senate, she gave me an opportunity to have another voice in this city of Albany.

She told me to you know, hold my head high, be confident, stand firm in my beliefs.

She just did a lot for me as far as my own personal growth.

- Alice, she taught me to reimagine the criminal justice system to be something that could offer dignity and respect to all.

She challenged all of us to envision that.

I totally channel Alice in all of my teaching because you can't hit a target you can't see.

Alice challenged us to see that vision that she saw.

I owe her a huge debt of gratitude.

- Family was very big to her.

You know the kids, the grandkids, we would do the holidays.

There was always family.

- Anytime I think of Alice, I think of Charles.

He was always by her side.

I mean, they were incredible team and a loving team and you could always see it in everything they did.

So... - When you watch them together, there's a symmetry.

There was a sort of this unspoken knowing of each other as there was humor and this acknowledgement of how the world could be and that everyone had a role and responsibility in that.

- She had such integrity.

And what I loved about Alice is, she was this vocal force externally, right, for justice.

She was never shy to stand up for somebody, but personally, she was quite humble and modest, quiet.

She so quietly remembered everybody's birthday and she sent little notes to thank you for this and that.

And she was such a lovely person personally.

But as an advocate, she never shied away from trouble.

Never.

- And those who've gotten that call from Dr.

Green, the call of duty, you're excited because you know we going to do some good trouble work, but you're motivated because you know that this is real.

And I'm going to miss that because I'm not as excited getting the call from everybody.

- She was a visionary.

She was ahead of her time.

She taught me a lot of values that, look, it's not easy to have an opinion that doesn't match with everyone else, but if you're a true leader and truly believe in what you're doing, then you can stand up against anyone and win people over.

- She believed that everybody deserved the opportunity for a second chance.

She never gave up on people.

She never gave up on anybody.

And I think that that inspired in a lot of people hope.

And I think it also inspired in people a desire to do more, to be more.

- She was phenomenal.

A phenomenal woman.

Strong, determined, inclusive, helpful.

She was no joke.

And she's going to be missed, but her legacy and the things that she did for all of us is gonna continue forever.

- My hope is that we're able to help groom the next Alice Green for this community because we need it so badly.

- She's been inspiring in a time when a lot of black people don't have leaders.

It's devastating that we don't have her, but I like to think that she planted seeds and that we'll be able to move forward in her memory.

- She really, really wanted justice for her people.

And when I was young, my dad used to sing a song called "I Believe I'll Go On To See What the End's Gonna Be."

So Dr.

Green work is unfinished, so we have to continue and go on to see what the end's going to be.

We have to make sure the younger generation knows her work.

She left some writings behind and we should not take them for granted.

- She made this place a better place.

She held them all their foot to the fire.

A lot of people, after a while, they back up, but she stayed strong till the day she died.

She stayed strong, y'all.

I can only give you the truth.

- I was always loved to hear her voice because there was something about her telling a story that you know it was the truth, that you know that you have to do something about what I'm telling you.

As Maya Angelou said, "When you know better, you do better."

I know better because of what Alice Green taught me and all of us who sat at her feet now have an obligation to do better.

- My name is Mark Bobb-Semple and the name of the film is a tribute to Dr.

Alice Green.

This came around when Dr.

Green passed.

We were doing a memorial and we couldn't have everyone speak at the memorial.

So we said, "Hey, this is a perfect time to do a documentary piece on Dr.

Green."

And we get people in, we're able to edit it, we're able to put it together and do a story out of it.

For the people who didn't know Dr.

Green, we wanted them to really get to know her and understood who she was.

And for the people who did know her, it was a time to really reminisce and really remember her.

And the stories that people knew about her.

The time that we took to make this, it was sort of two to three weeks.

It was really difficult pulling this together during the time that she had passed.

Folks were grieving so it was really a hard time to really get people.

The good thing about Dr.

Green, if you had asked Dr.

Green to do an interview for you if we were doing a film about you, she would've done it without even thinking about it.

So just because of that, people knew that and they wanted to do it.

So for this film, I collaborated with Nate Sims of Black River Studios and I want to make sure that I give him his credit.

And it was a great collaboration.

This whole process, we actually learned a lot.

We pulled together people that we didn't know Dr.

Green had interacted with.

And so a lot of these things was hearing the different stories that people were telling.

And then the hardest part of editing this was choosing which story to go with because people told us a lot of different stories.

But I think we were able to compromise and pull it together.

One of my favorite line was with one of the lawyers saying her first day at a job, and Dr.

Green was like, "Don't worry, I have my lawyer."

And she was like, "Wait a minute, that was me."

You know?

And so yeah, it was really, it's storytelling.

You want to make sure that people are telling the story instead of having to write a script, you know.

The Thursday before Dr.

Green passed, her and I took a walk to her car and she didn't look too good.

And so my conversation with her was, "Are you okay?

You need to take a vacation."

She's like, "I can take a vacation because we got to get this culture center going."

And I said, "Okay, we're doing that."

I didn't know that that was going to be my last conversation.

And so personally, I have taken on the culture center, the Alice Moore Black Arts and Culture Center.

I'm the director and we're just making it her vision come through.

She was an icon.

Gone too soon.

- We hope you enjoyed tonight's pairing.

If you want to watch more films and learn more about this season's filmmakers, visit wmht.org/tvfilm.

And don't forget to connect with WMHT on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Jermaine Wells and I'll see you next week.

(bright music) - [Announcer] TVFilm is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.