George Floyd Square filmmakers on the lessons behind the movement
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George Floyd’s murder five years ago sparked a community uprising, centered at 38th and Chicago in South Minneapolis.
Three Minneapolis community organizers, Jeanelle Austin, Toshira Garraway and Robin Wonsley, are spotlighted in a documentary about the uprising. It’s called "The People's Way," echoing the same words written in red on a former gas station.
Directors Ashley Tyner and William Tyner and producer Michael Tyner spoke with MPR News host Tom Crann about the film, ahead of screenings at the MSP Film Festival.
Click the audio player above to hear part of that conversation, or read the transcript below, edited for time and clarity. You can also listen to another part of the conversation, that aired during the film festival, here.
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Michael Tyner: The story is local, right? But it’s a global story. For me, it’s a prime example of what happens when people collectively fight towards justice and healing.
I’m an activist. I’ve done most of my activism in New York, and I’ve seen this play out over and over again. One of the things that Will and Ash were very attuned to is this idea of this film almost being a blueprint to how you build a movement. You have three different women that have taken three different paths, and the key is that they’re doing it in conversation with each other, even in their disagreement, they find ways to work with each other.
I think we really wanted to drive home that this is ongoing and that this is not just one person. Yes, George Floyd was murdered, but there are so many other people proceeding and afterward who are still being harmed by state violence and policing, and so I think that’s one thing, that it’s not just this flash-pan moment — that we all were there in May, and we were all at home with COVID-19, and we can now forget about it. It’s continuing to happen, and there is still so much work to be done.
One of the men from the community group says about George Floyd Square, and about George Floyd in general, that everyone is putting their own agendas on top of them. Do you agree?
Ashley Tyner: George Floyd Square is so much about a story and narratives. Yes, they do get leveraged and used to serve folks’ agendas. I think that’s why, through our work with these three women and through this film, we were interested in getting as close to the truth as possible, and understanding how many different perspectives are needed in order to tell the truth about something.
William Tyner: You know George Floyd Square is, as Ash mentioned, this collective multi-vocal space. There’s so many different gifts and folks coming to the table with offerings — one of Janelle Austin’s famous lines and words. And I think that, yes, one can see that as an agenda in that kind of zero-sum game of either yours or mine. But I think really what we’ve seen in this work is finding the intersection of everything, and that being, I think, the potential toward justice and liberation.
It seems like you’re not afraid of the ambiguity. The Minneapolis Police Department did not get defunded. Voters didn’t choose the amendment that would have changed the structure and replaced the police department. And yet, one of your subjects, Robin Wonsley, did get elected to City Council in that same election.
Ashley Tyner: Yeah, there’s the intersection of truths, and folks wanted to see change, and are they ready for this exact proposition for how to do that? Maybe, maybe not.
Michael Tyner: Five years ago, you know, all types of legislation was being introduced, and now we’re at a place where all of that stuff is being attacked. Toshira’s story, to me, is really a metaphor for this type of work, where you see her the entire time fighting for justice, at the front lines of everything. And there’s a scene at the end where her community holds her really tight and says, ‘No, we got you.’
To me that is our fight. That is the fight of people who are trying to make change. There’s always going to be forces that’s going to push you back and forth, and you have to keep going forward.
