00:00 How can I see these guys on the inside as human beings?
00:03 I can understand how you're just reduced to something that was a mistake.
00:08 Life is not a straight line and it's a maze.
00:11 There's a larger story at play about resistance.
00:14 That's what Du Bois left us with, right?
00:16 Resist.
00:18 One of our central questions is,
00:25 are we truly free when our brothers and sisters are not free?
00:30 What happens to a dream deferred?
00:33 There are more black people in the penitentiaries across this nation
00:37 than there were black people enslaved before the Civil War.
00:42 I've never done anything like this before.
00:44 So for me to walk in, man, and digest the script that they gave me
00:47 was challenging for me.
00:49 I have this history or legacy that's about humanity.
00:52 When we came together, we could move a mountain.
00:55 Yeah.
00:55 This has been a unique treat
00:57 because we bring a lot of the incarcerated people front and center.
01:02 We really, really get to meet them, just real-life human beings.
01:05 Our students are future scientists.
01:07 This semester, they're working with bee colonies
01:09 and understanding how bees help the Earth.
01:11 I really just love the idea of bees.
01:13 They're really interesting juxtapositions of young black men in that environment.
01:17 You might say that they're dangerous and bad,
01:20 but the planet needs them.
01:23 They help the world be better.
01:25 Vince was a really great entry point to that
01:28 because they know him.
01:30 You're not just an awful person.
01:33 You have layers.
01:34 And that was really, really important for me to get through
01:37 because I even did a stint in jail when I was like their age.
01:41 I'm very much into redemption.
01:43 I mean, I am that.
01:44 So there's no way I wouldn't want people to see that in these characters.
01:47 You are not your biggest mistake.
01:50 That really means something.
01:53 Go ahead.
01:54 The other amazing thing that happened is that they play a basketball game
02:04 against a team comprised of these incarcerated young men.
02:07 As we started doing rehearsals, I just kept saying,
02:10 "But guys, what if we just do it all in one shot?"
02:13 Reggie is referencing the film 1917,
02:16 which is shot by one of the greatest DPs ever.
02:19 I think he won the Oscar for that film.
02:21 So I'm like, "Yeah, no, we'll do that. No problem. Me? Oh, yeah. Easy."
02:25 I already do camera workouts, but the way he was describing it,
02:28 I'm like, "I guess I just need to double my workouts
02:31 for the next month," which I started doing.
02:33 So I get around and pull.
02:34 -And so you see from the back. -Yeah.
02:36 So you're down there when that shot goes up.
02:38 All the background, go behind that tree over there, please.
02:41 It was like six minutes of just holding the camera up.
02:44 And it was really, you know, technically just an amazing cinematic feat
02:49 that we were able to pull that off.
02:50 Right here! Lock down!
02:51 As much as I like to say this is not solely a basketball show,
02:56 basketball's important.
02:57 I really love this idea that we have to get the audience
03:00 at the edge of their seat,
03:01 and while they're leaning forward, hit them with the truth.
03:03 -Go, got this! -Come on, got this!
03:05 Zoom, wait.
03:08 Keep going!
03:09 [indistinct chatter]
03:11 [silence]
03:13 [silence]
03:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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