PBS Short Film Festival

(lively jazz music) Mm-hm, it is, it's time for the Triple HHH update, and topics to discuss about our community, and as always, I keep the camera sizzling, and today, we have a special guest, my beloved, mwah, Pop Pop. Mm-hm. Should we hold onto legacy when it's not economically sustainable? Y'all should come on out. Listen to the live band at Paris Blues. (chuckles) Paris will inherit this. Carry on. Aw, thank you for those hearts. Here go another hungry agent. (laughs) Y'all can come out here tonight. Get off Facebook for a few hours (laughs) while Paris and me prepare the free food. Since the beginning, you can eat from six p.m. to one a.m. Ain't got to buy a drink if you're hungry, and-- Back to the question I posed earlier. And yell yeah, we hold and keep family business through hard work. But times are different. We're globally connected forever, and can be anywhere, and move often. The only thing that moves around here is our age. Okay. (laughs) Time to go. Please, check out my link, Harlem's Identity Shift and Maintaining History. Check out my site, www.hhhh.com, and as always, I keep the camera sizzling. Thanks for coming. (soft jazz music) Sign the contract. The money is yours, and the property is ours. Hell no. Paris Blues ain't for sale. Being a little down don't mean it's the end. It ain't the first time, and hell yes, we shall overcome. Pop Pop, you said you'd be open to this. I said I would be open to a solution. This is the solution. Foreclosure is serious, Pop Pop. Free food, cheap drinks, non-paying customer friends, and an aging crowd do not pay the bills or increase profits. Please, just accept Diane's offer. (soft jazz music) We can trademark it, or brand it, and build it on my various social media platform, and carry the legacy by merging it with my audience. Oh. I will help to strategize by creating a clear and strategic plan so that we can monetize without having the financial pressures of having to sustain a physical space. We can all win, Sam. I mean, Paris's idea is very, very smart. Mr. Sam Johnson, young lady. (soft jazz music) And Paris Blues will never be for sale. Ciao. Isn't it safer to save it? I mean, I'm representing for us and helping our people. Schwartz and Associates can assist before you go into foreclosure. This is our final offer. (soft jazz music) This offer is on the table until eight p.m. tonight. Prevention is better than intervention. Can you come back around three? I need a few hours to convince him. All right, make it happen. (soft jazz music) Paris Blues has been in the community since November 18th, 1969. Also serves as a safe haven, and has supported many political fundraisers for candidates in Harlem, and look, everybody, here's Mr. Sam with his friend Rosa Parks. Alabama. Bus? Black people? Uh, Martin Luther King. Oh, wonderful. -

Woman

Oh, yeah. Miss Shirley, Miss Shirley, I left you a million messages. I answer to Alabama Sam. Not a good place to talk. Miss Shirley, thank you so much for your assistance. Pop Pop only listens to you. I'm just a day manager, I'm not a mediator. Please, Miss Shirley. Two voices are better than one. Please help him. (Sam smacks table) Miss Shirley, tell Pop Pop it's better to make a profit-- - Shirley, tell my grandbaby you can't copy a place in cyberspace. - Miss Shirley, tell Pop Pop old ways approach is not viable. - Tell her the musical and historical spirit-- - Paris blues can exist. Miss Shirley, Miss Shirley. Shirley. Miss Shirley. Shirley. What do y'all need me for? Uh, let's go. Why don't you just keep asking the questions and pretend like I can answer them. Please, Miss Shirley, this can really help us all. Some wonderful memories and stories with this. (lively jazz music) (Paris laughs) Trust your instincts, Paris. Emotions just get in the way. This was my dad's trumpet. He often played here. It's too late. The gentrifiers are here. Holding onto memories is nice and sweet, but it's not an asset. You need cash now. What did you say to your Pop Pop? I'm going to keep it. -

Paris and Sam

Forever and ever. Mommy will host the guests, and Daddy will entertain. Ty Johnson, you should've gave him a chance. My son's job is this. Can't trust him. Even in rehab, money wasted. (soft piano music) This place, you, Paris, are my tune left in Harlem to release my blues. The Schwartz and Associates types have grown their children since the age of two, instilling in them knowledge of the family business, and having access to resources, not us. We lived in the hood for years and did nothing. We don't know how to value or hold onto inheritance. It's better to sell and have something than nothing. (lively blues music) (people whoop) Pour you my champagne red (people chatter) (people clap) (lively electronic music) Pop Pop. Pop Pop. Pop Pop. We have less than an hour. (bell rings) (siren wails) Have you lost your mind, child? Yes, I've lost you because it's about them, it's about you, and it's about here. What about us? Family? I've missed all your presents during school graduations and special moments. I don't live in the history or the memory of this place. How can I carry the load of an entity that I'm not even connected to? (sobs) I love you, but I can't. Well, so be it. Alabama Sam, don't make this mistake. No, no, I'm fine, Shirley. I'm old, tired, scraped a few pennies together for a dream that no one can and wants to hold. You want to know what happened to Paris Blues money? Overhead costs. No. The second mortgage for this Paris allowed for this Paris to finish college, go to a private school, and pay your mama's bills. Will you get me a box, please, Shirley? She got that real estate lady in her head. She need guidance. We ain't going nowhere. Let's protest. Wait a minute. What behind in their right mind would follow a drunk-ass shady lady? (people laugh) Will somebody put the music back on? Let's party like it's the last time. Alabama Sam, I didn't stay past my work hours for this. Don't do this, Alabama Sam. Don't do this, Alabama Sam. Don't do this, man. (soft piano music) Mm-hm. Hm. (paper crumples) I'm sorry. Didn't I tell y'all I was gonna save this place? (laughs) You almost shut it down with your funky odor. (drunk woman shouts) (man coughs) (people shout) (lively jazz fusion music) Tell the secret of the game Imagine doing it to me If you know the game The secret's out The secret's out The secret of the game Tonight, you're gonna get yours If you know the game