GROUNDED

With this documentary, we made an early choice as directors to project on the big screen unselfconscious portraits of Black professionals, six Boston couples who lead in philanthropy, law, medicine, real estate, religion, higher education, business, and government. GROUNDED emerges as a stereotype-breaking examination of top Black talent, its genesis, its rich and varied manifestations, and how it thrives. Sharing twelve different stories at the axis of success and pushback against progress, the film undermines prejudice. It shows that Black power pairs, like every other slice of their community, are not monolithic. They do not necessarily agree on issues of uplift or challenge to mainstream social structures and business systems. Differences among them in personality, skill and opinion are set adjacent for clarity and effect. Cool, accomplished, and sometimes pointedly contrarian, the couples have made unmistakable breakthroughs. They are distinct from “cousins” in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, or Los Angeles, places with proportionally larger Black populations. Massachusetts stars shine, without critical demographic numbers. In an era of glaring racial inequity, they strive for more and for similar opportunities for fellow Black Bostonians waiting on their “come up.”

The couples speak truth as power, lending the documentary a triumphant feeling, one mirrored in the filmmaking process. My sister/business partner, Valerie Whitmore, and I initially collaborated on production, resulting in a 15-minute film short. A few months later, Valerie lost her life to a health emergency while traveling out of the country. Our original intent was to make a full-length documentary, and after her death, I made a vow to realize our vision. With the film short on the shelf, I gathered and captured more visual elements, revisiting the development notes, logs, and scripts we had made together, and strained to hear what her creative input would have been. To additional shooting, “You can get that footage on your own.” To the writing, “Remember to weave professional and personal details.” In rough cutting, “Don’t put that character in a box. Set him lose!” Fierce, respectful creative battles were the norm when we were editing together. In final post, her expected counsel now seemed simply, “You know what to do.” This film was made in her honor and is a testament to our own family modus operandi, “Never give up without a fight.”

The Whitmore filmmaking style is impressionistic, offering new angles on the familiar and veering away from linear storytelling. This movie attempts to recreate for the viewer the filmmakers’ sense of discovery while promoting uninhibited conversation, asking probing, but not prurient, questions. The film subjects demanded respect for their various life’s work and gave it, when earned, to filmmakers with whom they were familiar. GROUNDED is an exercise in discipline to deliver a neat series of profiles, which easily unfold and intermingle as ideas provoke and delight. Settings whisper principles and passions, and content is made credible by a realistic blend of mostly natural sounds and images. The subjects’ vulnerability is on display as much as their appeal, after all, the film aims to show, these high achievers are only human. Boston itself and movement through the city are used as additional “characters” and create dramatic tension with the couples’ insistence on digging deeper roots where they are not truly embraced or included.

Three key creative decisions brand the film. First, the story is told from the African American intra-community point of view. Second, evidence of professional strengths fills the screen, not begging for approval, but rather as irrefutable fact. Third, and most importantly, affirmation rules. The footage is ripe with this ethos. It is why the leaders stay, not only in Boston but also with each other and in the battle for equity more broadly. Each couple's profile begins with a “nod,” from another couple, a spouse, and sometimes, themselves. The proof that GROUNDED is a movie all about bolstering relationships, especially among people who are facing the same kinds of obstacles, is in the PDAs, Public Displays of Affection. Warm recognition, honest inclusion, direct acceptance, and respect for hard work are essentials these leaders say they must get outside of majority-led social and business activity. A distinguished attorney coddles an infant in daycare. The long toiling architect stands in front of his building, an island in a sea of inequitable real estate development. The philanthropist invests in service to all women in need, buoyed by the comebacks of down-and-out strangers. We tried not to cheat these images because they carry so much weight.

The relationship mapping provides space for historical context about Boston, a city which has not reconciled its progressive reputation with racial and socio-economic tensions. This is a complicated, decades old problem. Eager to provide some clarity, we entered private bonding spaces packing flood lights and boom sound catchers, but quickly discovered soft lamps and lavalier microphones would do. The hard truths were made obvious among this group who has been thoroughly initiated by bias treatment, so theatrics were unnecessary. Their attention, the camera and the story consistently focus on positive reinforcement from peers. It was repeatedly identified as the balm for the harm from racial barriers, and the fuel to minority professionals who overcome them. Testimony stings, though uniformly leans less bitter than sweet and by the film’s end, viewers may wonder, “How can I get some of that?” Others might further ask, “If these people are making such significant contributions in the face of opposition, what could be my part in helping or hindering progress?” With anecdotes that treat conflict as just one of many facts of life, the couples waste no time explaining racisms’ slings and arrows, instead share how they managed to get through. We highlight their answers to injustice in the form of quotations used as graphic intros for each segment. To paraphrase their advice: Make revolutionary change, remember our shared troubled history, open a door, reach out to someone in need, act with urgency, and go beyond surface impressions.

Within Black communities, there is a common understanding that, while other folks are watching, we must be on our best behavior. “Don’t shame your name and disgrace the race.” However, there is no shame in stymied opportunities and we found no playacting, just pride and a readiness to “tell it like it is.” Examples of power and influence stand in for the daily grind of less celebrated citizens, present but without speaking roles. Steady and phenomenal work appear to enhanced provincial living, but they have not been enough to satisfyingly accelerate Black Boston’s ascension. Safeguards dropped, the leaders conclude there would be many more of them to recognize, celebrate, and model, if stubborn detractors would just get out of the way. The stars deliver the news sparkling with world class in a city yearning for that distinction without qualification. If traditional, non-Black power brokers and structures have earned it, it is not in evidence here and now. This filmmaker, one of two left standing, is also engaging in a fight against the status quo. Refusing to let grief or work challenges slow my roll, I dare to place into the cinematic record a documentary on the impressive and protracted state of African American professionals in Boston, yet another reinforcing stake in potentially unwelcome territory. GROUNDED is daringly submitted for a world premiere nonetheless.