New Documentary Follows Rise Of Harlem's Black Lives Matter Mural

HARLEM, NY — As a Black Lives Matter mural took shape on a Harlem boulevard this summer while protests for racial justice raged across the country, the mural's organizers knew they were contributing to something special.

What they didn't anticipate was that the project would take on a life of its own. Community groups joined local artists to help paint the giant letters along Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard, musicians filmed their own music videos on top of the installation, and an older man with a harmonica struck up a jam session on the block one afternoon.

"We were all blown away at the degree to which this resonated with the community on an emotional level," said Nikoa Evans-Hendricks, executive director of the nonprofit Harlem Park to Park, which organized and helped fund the mural. "They really felt like they created this — they put paint to pavement."

Soon, Harlemites will be able to relive those few weeks in June and July during which the mural came together and established itself as a new local landmark, through a new documentary that followed those efforts as they happened.

The documentary, "An American Street Mural in Harlem," was shot over the summer by film crews from the company New Kingston Media. When work began on the mural in early July, the cameras were rolling, as the filmmakers interviewed those involved about what the project meant to them.

"We’re watching the origins of how the stencils are being laid for each letter, how each person is jumping in, how the chaos is unfolding, what is happening on social media as things are unfolding," director Ano Okera told Patch.

The film also covers the period in mid-July when the mural was vandalized with black paint, and follows organizers as they repair the damage. Filmmakers stayed at the scene for weeks more, as the site played host to cultural events including a memorial for the late Congressman John Lewis.

The roughly 40-minute documentary, which is being produced by Harlem Park to Park, will premiere on the film festival circuit next year. Evans-Hendricks said the film will launch to the community during the 2021 Juneteenth celebration as part of a planned block festival in Harlem.

While the film mostly follows the mural as it is created in real-time, Okera said it is informed by Harlem's creative legacy stemming from the Great Migration, in which thousands of Black people settled here in the early 20th century after fleeing racial terrorism in the South — a process that led to the neighborhood's flourishing during the Harlem Renaissance.

"We belong to that legacy — those refugees from terror that became Harlem residents," Okera said. "The legacy they left was to enjoy that rich cultural mecca that has been Harlem for the last 100 years."

The film's launch will coincide with a yearlong series of programming that will be announced on the documentary's website, americanstreetmuralinharlem.com. Those interested in supporting the film can donate online, where they can receive memorabilia including posters and T-Shirts of the mural.

The goal of the film is simple, Evans-Hendricks said: "to show our community matters, Harlem matters, has always mattered."