00:00:17.060 --> 00:00:20.500
I met Serena when I first moved to
New Orleans through a mutual friend.

00:00:21.380 --> 00:00:24.700
I was struck by her easy charm,
which belied an impressive resume.

00:00:25.720 --> 00:00:29.460
She graduated a prestigious culinary
program in New York and Stard at some of

00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:33.300
the most famous restaurants in the
city. When she returned to New Orleans,

00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:36.060
she worked in the grandest
kitchens climbing up the ranks.

00:00:36.160 --> 00:00:39.940
Her public profile also grew. She
was in magazines and on television.

00:00:40.250 --> 00:00:43.620
Chef Serena Johnson, you
are the Chopped Champion.

00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:48.020
An executive chef position seemed
inevitable. It was her birthright,

00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:50.540
this daughter of New Orleans. Instead,

00:00:50.540 --> 00:00:53.020
she left restaurants to
work as a chef of higher.

00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:56.620
I started in fast food,
just like most in every kid.

00:00:56.720 --> 00:00:59.980
Starts. Which fast food
did you start? That.

00:00:59.980 --> 00:01:00.180
Was my.

00:01:00.180 --> 00:01:01.180
First time I started at Wendy's.

00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:03.940
The food that I cook is like simplicity.

00:01:04.760 --> 00:01:06.780
If you're not going to see
me do nothing with nitrogen,

00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:09.620
you're not going to see me
stack nothing on a plate.

00:01:11.520 --> 00:01:13.700
So basically you cook the
food that you grew up on,

00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:16.420
but you use the techniques that
you learned at culinary school.

00:01:16.490 --> 00:01:18.500
Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

00:01:19.020 --> 00:01:22.380
I didn't understand why someone with
a personality and pedigree gave up the

00:01:22.380 --> 00:01:25.980
dream to be a chef in a big New Orleans
restaurant with all the accolades that

00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:26.810
came with that.

00:01:27.350 --> 00:01:28.220
Throw that right on.

00:01:28.540 --> 00:01:32.980
I didn't really work in restaurants where
the new chick came in and now all of a

00:01:32.980 --> 00:01:36.860
sudden she the sous chef and we sitting
up there like homegirl just was talking

00:01:36.860 --> 00:01:40.260
about how she just went to school. She
just graduated school two years ago.

00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:45.020
But me being who I'm, if I was a little
white girl, I'd probably be, yeah,

00:01:45.020 --> 00:01:49.380
driving a Rolls-Royce somewhere.
But this I'm just saying, I mean,

00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:51.820
and I thought my personality
would've went far.

00:01:51.860 --> 00:01:54.300
I thought I was going to beat the
little cool little token black chick,

00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:59.020
like he not do everything that y'all want
me to do. I'm good at playing a part.

00:01:59.190 --> 00:02:02.460
Right, and so what's this called Julian
in? What the fuck is this? Yes. Okay.

00:02:02.580 --> 00:02:03.410
Julianne.

00:02:03.420 --> 00:02:04.300
Julianne, which.

00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:06.060
In French means hair. Hairlike.

00:02:06.870 --> 00:02:07.700
Means what?

00:02:07.820 --> 00:02:08.380
Hairlike.

00:02:08.380 --> 00:02:09.580
Hairlike. All right. All right.

00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:11.420
The little strain look
like a little piece of.

00:02:11.420 --> 00:02:12.940
Which in English means bullshit.

00:02:13.130 --> 00:02:15.540
That part. They do have
some restauranters.

00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:18.980
They got some people who will
highlight you and showcase you.

00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:23.660
You remember best used to do that a
lot before all of that stuff happened,

00:02:23.800 --> 00:02:27.980
and I remember he took dudes from off
the line who was on the line with us at

00:02:27.980 --> 00:02:32.100
August and sent them off somewhere so
that they could train to run a restaurant.

00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:33.100
The black folks, or.

00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:33.820
Not black folks.

00:02:33.820 --> 00:02:34.980
That's talking.

00:02:34.980 --> 00:02:36.500
About not black folks,

00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:40.580
but I don't see no other race besides

00:02:41.740 --> 00:02:46.380
Europeans who have been groomed
in that restaurant to be that

00:02:46.380 --> 00:02:50.980
person of that restaurant. I haven't
seen any black people like that.

00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:53.780
Not none off the top of my head. No.

00:02:54.120 --> 00:02:58.820
So for those opportunities for us in
the kitchen in here in New Orleans,

00:02:59.470 --> 00:03:00.960
nope. No.

00:03:03.100 --> 00:03:04.760
So to recap the previous episode,

00:03:04.810 --> 00:03:08.880
black New Orleans chefs generally don't
get the opportunities commensurate with

00:03:08.880 --> 00:03:10.840
their culinary contributions
to New Orleans.

00:03:11.940 --> 00:03:14.880
In 2030 years I worked in the business,

00:03:16.590 --> 00:03:19.840
I've only actually worked for
two black executive chefs,

00:03:19.900 --> 00:03:23.000
and that was probably in
the last 10 years or so.

00:03:23.170 --> 00:03:24.840
There were other important
things we learned,

00:03:24.910 --> 00:03:28.440
like our initial set of viewers were
confused about the format of the show.

00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:33.120
What am I really watching here? Hopefully
our latest viewer is less confused

00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:38.330
To repeat,

00:03:38.470 --> 00:03:42.920
this is a show about Theo and I trying
to make a food show and about how racism

00:03:43.140 --> 00:03:46.000
and capitalism impact food
production and consumption.

00:03:47.420 --> 00:03:51.960
The last episode took us to the RO market
food hall and its righteous messaging

00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:54.360
that glossed over its
moneymaking ambitions.

00:03:54.390 --> 00:03:58.480
This food hall in particular was being
marketed as sort of this business that's

00:03:58.480 --> 00:03:59.100
doing good.

00:03:59.100 --> 00:04:02.760
We went to another food hall to meet
two black entrepreneurs who both saw

00:04:02.760 --> 00:04:06.760
for-profit enterprises as an
existential necessity for black folks.

00:04:07.060 --> 00:04:10.480
If we don't break into the capitalist
system and be good at capitalism,

00:04:10.530 --> 00:04:13.320
we're never going to thrive in
a capitalist system as a group.

00:04:13.420 --> 00:04:15.760
And as soon as you all
started wondering who I was,

00:04:16.280 --> 00:04:19.000
I introduced myself and my
awesomeness. My name is Tunde.

00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:23.200
I'm a marginally famous cook and writer
because how else do you get viewers

00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:27.400
interested in a topic but with a
dynamic host with whom the viewer is

00:04:27.400 --> 00:04:27.980
sympathetic to?

00:04:27.980 --> 00:04:30.160
Who? Yeah, considers
themselves gentrifier.

00:04:30.340 --> 00:04:32.440
That's just TV 1 0 1, baby.

00:04:32.780 --> 00:04:35.160
Can you talk about why you
think you are a gentrifier.

00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:35.840
Then?

00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:38.560
Exciting things began happening for our
production when we caught the attention

00:04:38.580 --> 00:04:40.880
of the New Yorker and
some Hollywood types,

00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:45.200
and when we returned at
the end of the episode,

00:04:45.340 --> 00:04:49.400
we were surprised to hear that the
journalist who was arguing that demerit of

00:04:49.400 --> 00:04:50.230
the food hall,

00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:54.800
I as a force of gentrification in the
neighborhood is also a gentrifiers.

00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:57.160
I am really aware that I am a I.

00:04:57.660 --> 00:05:01.720
Nah, ain't not a motherfucker, Theo. Yeah,

00:05:01.840 --> 00:05:04.640
I said ain't not a motherfucker. Yes.

00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:10.280
Are you a gentrifier as well
start why you're so quiet Maybe,

00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:13.600
but we don't have to use that.

00:05:16.270 --> 00:05:17.840
Actions that begin to

00:05:20.700 --> 00:05:23.440
reduce your comparability or what.

00:05:23.460 --> 00:05:26.920
Can I ask you? What do
you see as ideal actions?

00:05:26.950 --> 00:05:27.780
Give me your house.

00:05:27.950 --> 00:05:28.780
Give me your house.

00:05:28.970 --> 00:05:31.200
Give me your house.
Sign it over right now.

00:05:34.580 --> 00:05:37.160
Should I give it to you or should
I give it to my next door neighbor?

00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:38.730
Me. I'll take it.

00:05:39.820 --> 00:05:40.650
Why.

00:05:41.410 --> 00:05:42.450
Do you got to decide? Why me?

00:05:44.900 --> 00:05:48.630
Someone is going to decide if
we are redistributing wealth,

00:05:48.630 --> 00:05:52.510
someone has to decide
who we would what, right.

00:05:54.210 --> 00:05:55.750
But seriously, is that,

00:05:58.950 --> 00:06:02.610
do you see that as where we need
to go? Well, distribution, yeah.

00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:06.050
Yeah. I mean partially it's why

00:06:08.510 --> 00:06:11.480
this is going to be a too rambling
answer for television traps, but.

00:06:12.270 --> 00:06:15.680
I've watched the clip with Boce many
times and he's still really uncomfortable.

00:06:16.820 --> 00:06:21.680
He revealed so much and with each
revelation he morphed closer to the

00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:26.480
thing he was criticizing. I guess
there's no authority without a hypocrisy.

00:06:27.660 --> 00:06:29.200
At least that's true of my story.

00:06:29.330 --> 00:06:30.840
World of economic justice.

00:06:31.100 --> 00:06:36.080
Do I give away all of my money
until I become a dependent

00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:38.440
of the state myself? Right. It's.

00:06:38.780 --> 00:06:40.720
Become a wandering man camp just.

00:06:41.580 --> 00:06:41.800
On.

00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:42.430
The streets.

00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:43.260
Yeah.

00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:45.360
I think that's little too much.

00:06:47.380 --> 00:06:49.000
But yeah, I am.

00:06:49.990 --> 00:06:54.560
I'll be thinking more about what I
can give up and how I can work as a

00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:54.940
generalist.

00:06:54.940 --> 00:06:57.920
You can up some drinks
right now and treat us to.

00:06:58.150 --> 00:07:01.080
Some beverages. Be happy to do that.

00:07:01.230 --> 00:07:05.320
Yeah, yeah, let's go. I don't know
Boise's relationship with New Orleans,

00:07:05.540 --> 00:07:08.160
but his story about gentrifying a
black neighborhood is not unique.

00:07:09.390 --> 00:07:13.000
He's just one of the few white people
honest enough to admit it to a complete

00:07:13.200 --> 00:07:14.030
stranger on camera.

00:07:15.650 --> 00:07:16.480
Hello.

00:07:17.420 --> 00:07:19.720
Hi guys. So this is going to happen often.

00:07:19.940 --> 00:07:22.400
We are going to pop in and
out of different storylines,

00:07:22.470 --> 00:07:26.280
primarily moving between the documentary
and this sort of behind the scenes

00:07:26.280 --> 00:07:27.160
making of this show.

00:07:28.010 --> 00:07:28.840
Happy Monday.

00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:30.130
Anyway,

00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.640
remember the Hollywood types who we
said reached out via Instagram dms in

00:07:33.640 --> 00:07:36.510
episode one? Well, this is she.

00:07:37.090 --> 00:07:41.630
So I'm so excited to talk to you guys
and thank you Theo. I assume you're Theo.

00:07:41.820 --> 00:07:44.950
Full-time Emmy nominated
producer, Denise Davis. My.

00:07:44.950 --> 00:07:49.110
Name is Denise Davis. I am one of the
producers of Insecure season three.

00:07:56.340 --> 00:08:00.310
Yeah, Tunde. Like I said, a friend
of mine sent me the article,

00:08:01.200 --> 00:08:04.310
which I read right away and
then found your Instagram,

00:08:04.380 --> 00:08:09.310
watched your videos and just thought
what you were doing was so unique and so

00:08:10.150 --> 00:08:11.150
specific and interesting,

00:08:11.150 --> 00:08:15.590
especially in the docus space when
things are interesting like yours.

00:08:15.710 --> 00:08:18.710
I was like, oh shit, if I don't find
a way to reach out to you in a week,

00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:22.030
I'm going to be looking at an
announcement from someone else that you're

00:08:22.030 --> 00:08:25.630
producing this somewhere. So if you guys
had it your way with hard to swallow,

00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.550
where would you want to
go with it? Essentially.

00:08:29.430 --> 00:08:30.260
HBO max.

00:08:32.210 --> 00:08:34.030
The HBO audience. Well,

00:08:36.590 --> 00:08:39.470
I mean I saw that too. I between
HBO and Netflix. Honestly,

00:08:39.470 --> 00:08:43.750
where I think your show fits in that
is that because it's still food-based,

00:08:43.970 --> 00:08:45.350
no matter which way you look at it,

00:08:45.670 --> 00:08:50.030
I think all of the streamers or all of
the opportunities you have will be very

00:08:50.030 --> 00:08:53.630
interested in something like this.
Because in the Bourdain sense,

00:08:53.630 --> 00:08:56.640
it's like they all want a food type show.

00:08:57.430 --> 00:09:01.800
What does the money look like and how
would that break down just in a general.

00:09:02.020 --> 00:09:06.960
We could go out with the pitch and tell
them we want 300 grand an episode or we

00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:09.480
want X, and that's kind of where
you get into the negotiations,

00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:14.200
but you are able to set the tone because
you kind of have a proven concept.

00:09:14.540 --> 00:09:17.080
And so we would use that as the baseline.

00:09:17.380 --> 00:09:21.920
And then in terms of how that
breaks down between a co-pro is that

00:09:22.800 --> 00:09:26.720
I think in our case, you
need anything from us?

00:09:30.640 --> 00:09:34.440
I think I'm good and you guys
have everything out there,

00:09:34.620 --> 00:09:36.640
so I will, if anything,

00:09:36.670 --> 00:09:39.800
just send you guys a quick note just
as an update before I do anything,

00:09:39.950 --> 00:09:43.080
once I talk to Issa and then I can
kind of come back to you and say, Hey,

00:09:43.140 --> 00:09:45.720
we spoke cool to proceed as such,

00:09:46.580 --> 00:09:49.240
and then let's just keep in touch
because also no matter what happens,

00:09:49.240 --> 00:09:51.120
there's so many people
I'm like, oh my God,

00:09:51.160 --> 00:09:52.560
I want to introduce you guys to the world.

00:09:53.400 --> 00:09:56.560
Everyone should know about the work
you're doing and it's just exciting.

00:09:56.700 --> 00:10:00.480
So whatever I can do to help and
any other questions that come up

00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:03.430
here?

00:10:05.700 --> 00:10:07.960
We were so excited After
our first call with Denise,

00:10:08.440 --> 00:10:12.640
I almost started great dancing. It
was surreal, yet becoming so real

00:10:15.580 --> 00:10:18.320
we couldn't help or fantasize
about the riches to come.

00:10:30.910 --> 00:10:33.280
When we began filming
our documentary in 2019,

00:10:33.340 --> 00:10:36.280
our choice to feature the standard
rock market was not arbitrary.

00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:38.070
I used to work there.

00:10:39.920 --> 00:10:43.280
I was one of a dozen vendors
the market opened with in 2015.

00:10:44.800 --> 00:10:47.360
I was a co-conspirator in
the city's post-Katrina,

00:10:47.360 --> 00:10:50.040
gentrification and boys.

00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:54.920
I feel my complicity is
complicated by my experience like

00:10:54.920 --> 00:10:59.040
doesn't being a black immigrant
absorb me of responsibility? I mean,

00:10:59.040 --> 00:11:01.680
I was just trying to
make a living. Anyway,

00:11:01.680 --> 00:11:04.400
I'll spare you my internal
monologue on the issue for now.

00:11:04.900 --> 00:11:07.280
Before I tell you about my
time at the St. North market,

00:11:07.920 --> 00:11:11.400
I have to tell you about how I got
there and that story starts in Detroit.

00:11:12.020 --> 00:11:12.850
In 2013,

00:11:16.050 --> 00:11:20.560
Allah was still possible in Detroit.
As a broke Nigerian immigrant,

00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:23.720
I could stop into co-owning
a well-regarded restaurants.

00:11:25.140 --> 00:11:26.520
We called it Revolver.

00:11:30.110 --> 00:11:31.800
Ours was a quirky DIY party.

00:11:32.340 --> 00:11:36.000
My partner Peter and I stayed up the
night before our grand opening fastening

00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:40.120
dining tables from solid corridor four
by fours purchased from Home Depot.

00:11:40.710 --> 00:11:43.560
Peter's home stereo and
speakers were our sound system.

00:11:48.630 --> 00:11:49.460
Each night,

00:11:49.640 --> 00:11:54.040
a different local chef ran the kitchen
offering a new multi-course menu of the

00:11:54.100 --> 00:11:55.960
finest and trendiest foods in the city,

00:11:56.660 --> 00:11:59.360
all the local greats and a few
not so greats came through.

00:12:09.290 --> 00:12:12.600
Sound speeds. We're ready
to roll. All right boys,

00:12:13.410 --> 00:12:15.640
let's just get a nice little introduction.

00:12:15.980 --> 00:12:20.280
My name is UND Dewe. I'm co-owner
of Revolver. This is Peter.

00:12:21.780 --> 00:12:22.000
I'm.

00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.080
Peter. I'm co-owner of Revolver.

00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:38.540
I think we're a restaurant that's a
completely different experience every time

00:12:38.540 --> 00:12:39.370
you come.

00:12:40.160 --> 00:12:42.900
We have our revolving
cast of chefs. We have.

00:12:42.980 --> 00:12:45.300
A new menu each time
the restaurant is open.

00:12:45.770 --> 00:12:49.860
It's everything from fashion forward
American Fair to ethnic fair.

00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:53.940
We like to call ourselves
the Tom Jones of restaurants.

00:12:54.640 --> 00:12:56.500
We just here one time

00:12:58.390 --> 00:13:01.340
about five feet back when we
were sweeping up after dinner,

00:13:01.910 --> 00:13:05.940
there was a pair of lace. I
think it was here actually,

00:13:06.640 --> 00:13:08.140
but it was between this
one and the next table.

00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:13.340
So we just figured it's an
anomaly and then recently we were

00:13:13.340 --> 00:13:14.170
going,

00:13:14.390 --> 00:13:19.260
there was a pair of red
lace thongs a little bit

00:13:19.260 --> 00:13:21.180
farther back actually on the seat.

00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:22.580
One size fits all. It says.

00:13:22.970 --> 00:13:23.260
That.

00:13:23.260 --> 00:13:23.460
We.

00:13:23.460 --> 00:13:28.260
Don't know what that means. The
underwear around if it's super elastic.

00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:34.420
But yeah, revolver is so good
that it blows your underwear off.

00:13:40.950 --> 00:13:43.990
I fell in love with restaurants because
it was maybe the first thing I was

00:13:43.990 --> 00:13:47.950
successful at and the first time in my
adult life that people took me seriously.

00:13:49.100 --> 00:13:49.930
Finally,

00:13:50.210 --> 00:13:54.590
my ideas matter and I didn't transform
myself to be someone else for this

00:13:54.590 --> 00:13:59.510
success. I didn't sacrifice my better
instincts. I did it on my own terms.

00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:04.830
How do you overcome naysayers like
your close friends like myself?

00:14:07.330 --> 00:14:12.190
Do they in your face tell you you need a

00:14:12.350 --> 00:14:16.190
business plan and miss you Sumari? Wait,

00:14:16.890 --> 00:14:19.790
so this is Sam. Sam's a good
friend of mine and he says, says,

00:14:20.490 --> 00:14:25.070
you have overachieved. It's
like, what? No, I said,

00:14:25.070 --> 00:14:26.550
you earned more than you deserve.

00:14:36.190 --> 00:14:40.390
I don't think you understand by opening
up a restaurant, I did the impossible.

00:14:40.890 --> 00:14:43.910
Not because I was special, but
because Detroit was special.

00:14:44.900 --> 00:14:46.390
Special as in dysfunctional,

00:14:47.210 --> 00:14:50.470
my restaurant was only possible because
the city was flattened by disaster.

00:14:51.460 --> 00:14:55.660
Things fell apart. The center could
not hold its facade of success.

00:14:55.970 --> 00:15:00.180
Once undergirded by good middle class
automotive and manufacturing jobs was

00:15:00.340 --> 00:15:05.180
crumbling and restaurants where the
mushrooms that sprouted everywhere

00:15:07.400 --> 00:15:11.700
you see Detroit's economic devastation,
depressed conditions, labor was cheap,

00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:15.020
and real estate even cheaper
such that possibilities.

00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:20.120
We arrive for my sort of adventurism
and these conditions culminated

00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:23.760
in Detroit's bankruptcy. The high
watermark of its troubled history.

00:15:24.380 --> 00:15:28.920
Get the fuck out of my face.
That's not a bad angle, I guess

00:15:31.920 --> 00:15:33.400
I thought you were pointed to my

00:15:36.230 --> 00:15:37.480
that only fan shot.

00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.060
How a bad idea. 1970s.

00:15:44.380 --> 00:15:49.180
1980S post-production base
for the documentary was
Theo's apartment in Oakland.

00:15:49.880 --> 00:15:51.620
His bedroom was our editing suite.

00:15:53.280 --> 00:15:55.820
We would spend months in his
bedroom reviewing footage,

00:15:56.090 --> 00:15:57.700
writing and rewriting the story.

00:15:57.990 --> 00:16:00.980
Every flat surface in Theo's
room became a storyboard.

00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:03.540
The post-it notes helped
organize my thoughts,

00:16:03.540 --> 00:16:07.820
but as soon as plot point made sense, it
was made senseless by a new storyline.

00:16:08.140 --> 00:16:08.970
I think

00:16:12.560 --> 00:16:14.700
all of this is good.

00:16:17.010 --> 00:16:18.420
This is where the struggle begins.

00:16:18.880 --> 00:16:21.340
We had so much footage and the
stories we were trying to tell,

00:16:21.800 --> 00:16:24.380
but also technical and frankly boring,

00:16:30.160 --> 00:16:32.340
but they were so fucking important.

00:16:32.880 --> 00:16:35.940
One of the more complicated
storylines was Detroit's bankruptcy.

00:16:36.930 --> 00:16:40.100
Para. Okay.

00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:43.980
The gains from the gains from
this period were unprecedented.

00:16:46.760 --> 00:16:48.580
The gains from this
period were unprecedented.

00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:52.380
The spoils of capitalism were shed
between workers and owners thanks to the

00:16:52.380 --> 00:16:53.940
strong presence of unions and.

00:16:53.940 --> 00:16:56.620
The largest well, thank you
for joining Kevin I today.

00:16:57.170 --> 00:16:59.300
This is a very important
day in Detroit's history.

00:16:59.970 --> 00:17:01.940
It's a very difficult and serious day.

00:17:02.890 --> 00:17:06.820
What I would like to do is walk through
several key questions and give you my

00:17:06.820 --> 00:17:08.380
thoughts on the answers
to those questions.

00:17:08.540 --> 00:17:10.100
I know you have thousands of questions.

00:17:10.170 --> 00:17:11.780
Detroit more than most other places,

00:17:11.830 --> 00:17:15.620
dramatized suitably the great
social political realities
that have shaped recent

00:17:15.620 --> 00:17:15.940
history.

00:17:15.940 --> 00:17:16.740
Fundamentally,

00:17:16.740 --> 00:17:21.060
I authorized the filing of a bankruptcy
and Kevin or has followed through and

00:17:21.060 --> 00:17:24.060
that bankruptcy filing has
occurred in federal court.

00:17:24.520 --> 00:17:28.980
It was at the center of new articulations
of American work life and decline.

00:17:29.840 --> 00:17:30.900
In terms of the why,

00:17:31.170 --> 00:17:34.420
this goes back to 60 years of downward
decline in the city of Detroit.

00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:40.140
If you go back to 1950, Detroit
was a city of 1.8 million people.

00:17:41.520 --> 00:17:46.340
Now it's a city of 680 some thousand
people. It's a dramatic decline.

00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:50.640
The postwar era saw tremendous
growth in the US economy.

00:17:51.380 --> 00:17:53.520
The gains from this
period were unprecedented.

00:17:53.820 --> 00:17:56.800
The spoils of capitalism were
shared between workers and owners.

00:17:57.100 --> 00:18:00.560
Thanks to the strong presence of
unions and the largest of big business.

00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:03.120
No place was this more true than Detroit.

00:18:03.460 --> 00:18:06.160
The city credited with birthing
the middle class pleasant.

00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:11.160
Friendly life of Hilldale moves on
each week pretty much like the last,

00:18:11.710 --> 00:18:15.960
just as it does in all the pleasant
friendly towns that are the backbone and

00:18:16.020 --> 00:18:16.880
sinews of America.

00:18:17.540 --> 00:18:20.320
But the story of post-war prosperity
is not entirely true either.

00:18:20.710 --> 00:18:24.120
America's economic growth almost
exclusively benefited white people.

00:18:24.510 --> 00:18:26.600
Federal programs like the GI Bill,

00:18:26.610 --> 00:18:30.680
which offered loans for higher education
and homes actively excluded black,

00:18:30.730 --> 00:18:32.080
brown and indigenous folks.

00:18:32.380 --> 00:18:36.880
Add to this disenfranchisement the effect
of urban renewal in the late fifties

00:18:37.020 --> 00:18:37.850
and sixties.

00:18:38.250 --> 00:18:38.600
Helen,

00:18:38.600 --> 00:18:41.920
you remember two or three weeks ago we
had a highway official as speaker at the

00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:46.850
lunch club? Yes, yes. You told me about
it. Freeways linking the whole country.

00:18:48.590 --> 00:18:53.450
One of those freeways is coming here
through Hilldale. How wonderful.

00:18:54.180 --> 00:18:59.090
Where will it go? They don't say, urban.

00:18:59.090 --> 00:19:02.810
Renewal was the active bulldozing of
black neighborhoods to make way for newer

00:19:02.890 --> 00:19:07.210
development and the interstate
highway system. In part,

00:19:07.360 --> 00:19:11.610
this discrimination and
possession instigated the
black power movement and the

00:19:11.610 --> 00:19:13.210
urban uprisings of the sixties.

00:19:30.910 --> 00:19:34.370
Law and order have broken
down in Detroit, Michigan.

00:19:35.520 --> 00:19:37.010
Pillage, looting,

00:19:37.510 --> 00:19:42.090
murder and arson have nothing
to do with civil rights.

00:19:50.280 --> 00:19:52.050
Well, after I was shot,

00:19:52.490 --> 00:19:55.770
I just fell right to the pavement
because I didn't know how many shots was

00:19:55.770 --> 00:19:56.850
coming off after that.

00:20:00.520 --> 00:20:04.770
There's a popular story about Detroit's
decline. The story says that this once,

00:20:04.770 --> 00:20:09.290
lawyer city was a victim of white flight
precipitated by racial uprising in the

00:20:09.290 --> 00:20:13.250
late sixties. And when white people
moved out, the city lost its tax base,

00:20:13.690 --> 00:20:16.570
a vicious cycle of crime,
poverty and blight and suit.

00:20:27.470 --> 00:20:29.090
In this account of Detroit's demise,

00:20:29.230 --> 00:20:33.010
the city also suffered poor and corrupt
leadership went political control

00:20:33.400 --> 00:20:37.290
shifted from white to black Detroit. The

00:20:46.600 --> 00:20:47.330
however,

00:20:47.330 --> 00:20:50.720
there was the socioeconomic conditions
at the time of the race uprisings,

00:20:50.780 --> 00:20:52.920
not the uprising itself that fell Detroit.

00:21:08.380 --> 00:21:12.040
The true demise of Detroit came when
the post-war welfare state gave way to

00:21:12.040 --> 00:21:16.160
Reagan's small governments. Everyone
felt a pinch, including white people.

00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:18.840
The economy shifted from
production to finance.

00:21:20.990 --> 00:21:25.320
Wall Street demanded evermore profits
causing corporations to move production to

00:21:25.320 --> 00:21:28.480
cheaper regions of the global
economy and killing unions.

00:21:28.860 --> 00:21:33.240
So by the seventies and eighties when
demographic changes saw Detroit's shift to

00:21:33.240 --> 00:21:37.960
a black majority and political leadership
turned black as well, the good times,

00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:39.250
it definitely over.

00:21:40.450 --> 00:21:42.320
We've gone through a 10 year period

00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:49.000
starting back about 75 that
almost as rough in some

00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:52.600
respects, rougher than the
10 year period that followed

00:21:54.160 --> 00:21:54.990
1929.

00:21:55.460 --> 00:22:00.400
The economic downturn forced Detroit
to go back to the distinguished

00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:01.000
mayor of.

00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:02.200
Detroit for his state,

00:22:02.970 --> 00:22:06.040
mayor Coleman young mayor of Detroit.

00:22:06.890 --> 00:22:09.680
Thank you very much Mayor I
and members of the committee.

00:22:10.460 --> 00:22:15.440
We need to mobilize fully the full
resources of our federal government

00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:20.120
in order to save our cities. Because
if our cities go down, in my opinion,

00:22:20.820 --> 00:22:22.120
our nation will go down.

00:22:23.030 --> 00:22:24.680
When no relief came from the government,

00:22:24.680 --> 00:22:29.160
Detroit borrowed from Wall Street growing
his debt to about 1.5 billion by the

00:22:29.160 --> 00:22:31.120
time Mayor Coleman Young left office.

00:22:41.350 --> 00:22:45.200
Well, Detroit fell in a hard times
because of bad leadership, right?

00:22:46.590 --> 00:22:50.720
And we just referenced Coleman Young
as an example of that critique.

00:22:51.180 --> 00:22:52.960
Not that we agree with the
critique we're just saying.

00:22:53.500 --> 00:22:56.800
And then from Coleman Young, the last
thing says is that we need that money. We.

00:22:56.800 --> 00:22:57.630
Need that money.

00:22:57.770 --> 00:23:00.520
Right? Then we ding.

00:23:09.730 --> 00:23:13.910
Hey Theo, Rishi and rest of
the team should be on shortly.

00:23:14.170 --> 00:23:16.790
So things move pretty quickly
after that first call with Denise.

00:23:17.170 --> 00:23:17.930
Hey.

00:23:17.930 --> 00:23:19.870
Hey, how's it going? Film 45,

00:23:19.870 --> 00:23:23.590
another prestigious production company
joined Issa Rate Productions to work with

00:23:23.590 --> 00:23:24.510
us. Hey.

00:23:25.670 --> 00:23:26.850
Hey everybody. Sorry I'm late.

00:23:27.590 --> 00:23:30.570
Hey Max, without a hat, what's.

00:23:30.570 --> 00:23:33.490
Happening? I know, man,
I'm letting it flow. Film.

00:23:33.490 --> 00:23:37.250
45 Was a preferred production
company for Netflix fx,

00:23:37.460 --> 00:23:38.730
apple TV and others.

00:23:38.860 --> 00:23:43.650
While Issa reproductions had a
distribution deal with H-B-O-H-B-O Max and

00:23:43.650 --> 00:23:46.520
Warner Brothers Studios looks
like a white serial killer.

00:23:51.700 --> 00:23:55.240
Up guys just casually
with this background.

00:23:55.980 --> 00:23:57.600
No explain. In less than a month,

00:23:57.820 --> 00:24:01.040
we had somehow managed the most
unusual and favorable situation.

00:24:01.740 --> 00:24:05.960
Two reputable production companies working
together to pitch us to all the major

00:24:06.280 --> 00:24:07.110
networks.

00:24:07.190 --> 00:24:11.680
Glad everyone could jump on. We've
had a look at the string out,

00:24:11.860 --> 00:24:13.360
not calling it a pilot. It's a string out.

00:24:14.380 --> 00:24:19.240
And we were able to also just chat
about the feedback from Lizzie

00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:21.400
in terms of what they were
hoping to hear more of.

00:24:22.080 --> 00:24:26.520
What I think they're looking for and what
we agree probably we need a little bit

00:24:26.520 --> 00:24:31.240
more of is how does the show ultimately
work and what are the mechanics of it

00:24:31.420 --> 00:24:36.000
and what are the elements other than
conversations that are happening, right?

00:24:36.120 --> 00:24:38.640
I think conversations are
definitely a part of this,

00:24:38.780 --> 00:24:43.200
but where the show seem to pop
the most is when you were having

00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:48.000
conversations with people who could
hold their own and challenge you a

00:24:48.100 --> 00:24:53.000
little bit about maybe some of your
thoughts and then have a little

00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:57.320
bit of a point of view themselves to
share as opposed to some of the folks who

00:24:57.550 --> 00:25:00.280
they agreed with you completely
that they should do a better job.

00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:02.880
I mean to just use, is
it voice? The writer

00:25:04.380 --> 00:25:05.600
had interesting things to say,

00:25:05.980 --> 00:25:09.040
but then it gets to a point where
they're sort of like, you're right.

00:25:10.260 --> 00:25:12.960
And then it sort of ends there, right?

00:25:15.180 --> 00:25:19.000
The investor and the restaurant owner
that you're having the three-way

00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:22.800
conversation with. I really liked
how they were like, okay, yes,

00:25:22.820 --> 00:25:25.600
we see your point. But
he talked about, well,

00:25:25.600 --> 00:25:28.200
we are in a capitalist world and
we've got to play in these rules.

00:25:28.910 --> 00:25:30.920
That conversation is a little bit more.

00:25:31.590 --> 00:25:34.280
They had something to offer you
more so than some of the others did.

00:25:34.740 --> 00:25:38.600
If we don't break into the capitalist
system and be good at capitalism,

00:25:39.390 --> 00:25:42.760
then we're never going to thrive
in a capitalist system as a group.

00:25:44.090 --> 00:25:45.960
Sorry. No, I was just going
to add Rha before you go.

00:25:46.800 --> 00:25:51.000
I know you spoke to Lizzie and then we
were able to reconnect on our end and

00:25:51.270 --> 00:25:53.800
they're more than happy for you
guys. Also joined the meeting.

00:25:54.100 --> 00:25:57.280
The meeting was in preparation
for an upcoming pitch with HBO.

00:25:57.700 --> 00:26:02.040
We discussed what worked and what didn't
and we left the call confident that our

00:26:02.040 --> 00:26:03.840
show was ready for prime time.

00:26:04.170 --> 00:26:04.520
Thank.

00:26:04.520 --> 00:26:06.000
You guys. Thank you all.

00:26:09.070 --> 00:26:12.320
Good afternoon, second day of series fest.

00:26:12.530 --> 00:26:16.920
How's everyone doing today
and welcome to unscripted

00:26:17.290 --> 00:26:22.240
Block two in the independent pilot
competition and we're going to get to hear

00:26:22.310 --> 00:26:26.960
from the creative teams of longtime
Sun and hard to swallow after the

00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:29.640
screening. Nice to meet you.

00:26:30.460 --> 00:26:34.940
Any brave souls have a
question? Oh yes, I can see one.

00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:37.140
So for Theo,

00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:43.020
you're white and you,

00:26:45.140 --> 00:26:46.400
you're kind of representative.

00:26:46.780 --> 00:26:50.160
How did you connect for him
to pick you to work with?

00:26:50.530 --> 00:26:52.640
Seems odd not for you to work with him.

00:26:53.340 --> 00:26:55.040
I'm sorry, the gentleman
who was just speaking.

00:26:55.950 --> 00:26:56.390
Theo.

00:26:56.390 --> 00:26:57.220
Theo, yes.

00:26:57.460 --> 00:27:01.640
Do you think another reason why Tuesday
they picked you was because you were

00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:02.800
going to be talking to white people?

00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:07.520
A lot of times black folks will pick
white people thinking and hoping

00:27:08.110 --> 00:27:11.960
that there is an easier access point.

00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:16.160
I am going to be working
with this individual and
it's easier to get into that

00:27:16.160 --> 00:27:18.920
room at some point and
get people to open up.