Our Story

Ironically, when the April 7, 2001, riots broke out I had called off “sick” from my job as production assistant at WCPO, the Cincinnati, Ohio, ABC affiliate. I was living a sheltered life in the wealthy, predominantly white village of Glendale, a north-lying suburb of Cincinnati. I had no inkling of the police brutality and racism that was happening just 20 minutes south. The day that Timothy Thomas was shot and killed while fleeing Police Officer Stephen Roach forever changed Cincinnati. And me. Once rioting and looting broke out, I was shocked by my co-workers’ cavalier attitudes about blacks’ outrage. “I decided that despite not having formal training, I was going to make a documentary about the riots. Armed with a camera, I infiltrated city council meetings, protests and rallies. Seemingly overnight, I morphed from middle-class black slacker to a guerilla filmmaker and activist.

In January 2006, after compiling more than 100 hours of footage, I applied and was accepted to the Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Studio Program that pairs filmmakers with a professional editor. Studio Manager Paul Hill didn’t know what hit him when I arrived. I wanted Hill to feel and understand the material he was editing. We began each work day with a “racial roundtable:” our bootleg version of “Meet the Press” 2.0. Hill bombarded me with questions everything from Black History Month to his own white privilege. Hill’s consciousness was awakened. He asked to become co-director of  “Cincinnati Goddam.” Through the course of editing our story kept expanding and new information about the police in-custody death of Roger Owensby, Jr. came to light, requiring us to gather more footage and shoot new interviews with prominent people (scholar Manning Marable and Jill Nelson, the editor of “Police Brutality: An Anthology”) to couch the documentary in a national conversation.  We decided to make an activist piece, a tool to educate communities. For the past several years we have been cloistered in a windowless studio, logging tapes, editing, constantly shooting b-roll and sidestepping legal land mines to bring this film to fruition. My friendship with Paul Hill has grown beyond a mere working relationship to now embody the essence of the old-school civil rights movement: people from disparate backgrounds working closely for the greater good of a seemingly far-fetched ideal that is actually within reach. Justice starts not with one person but with two who are obsessed with it.

The Film

“Cincinnati Goddamn”is a feature-length documentary about police brutality, judicial misconduct, and the power of grassroots activism in Cincinnati, Ohio. The film focuses on the murders of Roger Owensby, Jr., and Timothy Thomas at the hands of Cincinnati Police.  Set against the backdrop of a successful economic boycott and a federal investigation into the city’s policing practices, this poignant and powerful story of injustice is told through first-person accounts and cinema verité footage of the surviving families’ long-suffering battle for justice.

 The Impact

“Cincinnati Goddamn”is an unapologetically candid documentary that will give voice to all black and brown men and their families who have suffered in silence after being brutalized by the police and then shafted by the judicial system. It will also be used as a training tool for non-profits, law schools and community organizers to address police misconduct, racial injustice, and judicial corruption happening worldwide. In addition to laying bare the emotional toll the deaths of Roger Owensby, Jr. and Timothy Thomas took on their families, just as importantly “Cincinnati Goddamn” details the tactics used by Cincinnati’s grassroots activist community to implement an economic boycott the likes of which the city and country had never seen before. Therefore, the documentary transcends the story of yet another black man dead in police custody. “Cincinnati Goddamn” is for people who have felt over-policed, victimized by the justice system, and disenfranchised by lawmakers.

Why Support This Film

The world has gasped at images beamed by cellphone documentarists of police brutalizing protesters at worldwide Occupy movements; ironically, the treatment of fed-up students angered and burdened by the prospects of whopping student loan bills and a bleak, jobless economy gets the year-end cover of Time Magazine. However, that brand of blatant abuse—and much more--occurs regularly in black and brown communities only without the sexy news lede. By supporting this film you will become a stakeholder in the ongoing fight for justice and the guarantee for everyone’s civil rights.

What We Need/What You Get

We need $9,000 to complete “Cincinnati Goddamn.” We are in the final weeks of editing the documentary, so the funding we need will go toward the sweetening of sound and other technical tweaking, the marketing and screening of the film in various venues that have recently experienced a rash of police brutality like Oakland, New Orleans, Chicago, New York and London.  Please give what you can, and ask your justice-loving family and friends to make a contribution.Though “Cincinnati Goddamn” addresses issues relatable to communities worldwide, all our PERKS are by a bevy of Cincinnati’s finest artists as a way of keeping local ties to and love pulsing throughout the project.Check out their websites to see just how valuable the perks are.

Sean Hughes: Poster Designer - http://www.photopresse.com

Evoi Design: DVD Designer -http://www.envoidesigns.com

Terence Hammonds: T-Shirt Designer- http://www.patsfallgraphics.com/pages/hammonds.html

Kathy Y. Wilson, author: Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths in Black & White- http://www.amazon.com/Your-Negro-Tour-Guide-Truths/dp/1578602068/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325172491&sr=1-1

Your money will go towards:

Adobe After Effects Editor- $1,500

Music Composer-$1,000

Website Designer-$1,500

DVD Duplication-$1,000

Marketing Materials (Graphic Designer, Copy Writer, Printing Costs)- $2,000

Video Footage Licensing-$1,000

Travel cost for screenings-$1,000