POV

-Next on "POV Shorts"... -I've seen in my 40 years of working with young people, they might not read the black history book, but they'll read the wall. -Two amateur archivists tell their own history. -I am the keeper of the films. -"POV

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Positive Images."

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-July 1st.

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After the great earthquake, the neighborhood has become a refugee camp. The whole community is populated with families who lost almost everything.

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January 24. Ground was broken yesterday at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Granada. The building cornerstone was laid.

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March. The new building is complete, including one of the best gymnasiums in the Bay Region.

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January 12th. We have lost several of our members who have moved back east.

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-San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission regular hearing for Wednesday, May 4th. Would like to take role this time. Commissioner President Wolfram? -Here. -Commission Vice President Highland. -Here. -Commissioner Hawes? -Yes. -Commissioner John. -Yes, here. -Commissioner Johns. -Yes, here. -Commissioner Matsuda. -Here. -And Commissioner Pearlman. -Here.

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-God bless you, Pat. Hey. -So how you feel? -No, How are you feeling? Hey. -How are you doing? -Good. You drew all this stuff?

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-Good morning. How you doing? -Nice see you. I'm good. Thank you. You're very welcome. All right. April 10th. San Francisco is effectively closed off to non-whites. Ingleside becomes a refugee area once again. -You can't tell the history of African-Americans in this city, or anywhere else, without engaging in narration. Narration simply connects through telling.

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-July 1st. Give.

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Author Colson Whitehead won the National Book Award for fiction this year for his novel "The Underground Railroad."

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January 9th. The gymnasium ceiling, heating plant, and primary department room needs attention as soon as possible.

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I want to first of all pause and give you an opportunity to call out names of persons that we can include in this prayer for today. Let's do that now, please.

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Robert, Stanley, Charlie, Ester, Brianna... Phyllis, Gina, Gail, London, Ginny... Rodney. Lena Horne. Duke Ellington. Bessie Smith. Prince. Jackie Wilson. Maya Angelou. Bob Teeler. Dolores and Charles. Dr. James Noel. James Johnson. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dick Gregory. Billy Epstein. Donnie Hathaway. Cynthia Jones. Malcolm X. Harry Belafonte. -If a task is once begun, never leave it till it's done. Be the label great or small. Do it well or not at all. There's one room that's never filled. And that is the room for improvement. Why I'm citing this history? African-Americans have excelled in spite of that kind of a toxic, mean, racist attitude and done an outstanding job. And we should make sure that in this contextual statement, it is mentioned that we achieve in spite of that. -Thank you. Sorry. Thank you very much. -That's not fair to all the other speakers. -Patrick. Thank you. -Thank you very much. -Thank you. -And I might say lovingly right here and respectfully. I hope the next time I come before this commission there's a black face on it. -Thank you.

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-October 2nd.

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-This is a test. -Evictions, rent increase, and development projects produce a new, tragic, demographical shift in the neighborhood. Black population reduces to less than 5%.

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-Item 9, for case number 2015-007219DES. The Ingleside Presbyterian Church and The Great Cloud of Witnesses initiate landmark designation. -

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That's good.

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December 20th. The building and its interior have obtained the city's historical landmark status. As long as San Francisco is a city, the building and its interior will be safeguarded. 1345 Ocean Avenue. One of the places where wild imagination began and continues. This is the surface of this film. I have seen in my 40 years of working with young people, they need role models, especially of their own culture, achieving so they can get the image of themselves achieving. And I got the vision. They might not read the black history books, but they'd read the wall. Nothing but positive images.

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October 2nd. Don't worry if its too much or not enough -- give what you can. But keep giving, don't stop. Don't expect something in return. Don't calculate nor quantify. And don't financialize. This is radical generosity. This is infinite giving. This is hand-written history found in our session records.

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-Hello, everyone. My name is David De Rozas. I'm the director of "Give." I hope you like the film, and you were inspired by its story. The next film coming is "Into My Life." -October 19, 1961. Cassandra Anne Bromfield is 5 years old. Come close. Stand around close. Everybody happy? -Yes.

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-Ooh. - Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday, dear Sandy Happy birthday to you -All right, wait. Let me take a picture of you cutting the cake.

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-My memory of my mother taking pictures is that she always took pictures.

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I think she was fascinated and interested and wanted to document us being here.

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There was some foresight that she knew today would be happening. That she knew that we would be here today talking about her pictures.

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We moved here in 1964. I was between 7 and 8. I'm a person that's been here since the first brick. I saw those buildings go up. I didn't leave. I'm still here. It's -- You know, I never was not here. You know, we did things together. and my mother would sit in the lobby and take pictures. I thought other people had this. What I found on YouTube was I couldn't find other black people. I know we weren't the only black people that had a camera. I was just really, really lucky that we had it in a box, or we had it up high. When I got a hold of the digitizing the super 8, the 8mm films, I thought, wow these are stories here that I can tell. And apparently I filmed her, and she was painting on the terrace. And I said, "Oh, I know, I'll do it, and I'll put this music." And so on and so forth and then I walked out on the terrace with the camera. And then, I infused my mother's picture in there, you know, with her painting on the terrace. And that was one of the first ones I think I edited. So thank God there's YouTube because that stuff will be there. It will be there forever. I actually think my mother was way more creative than her opportunity. She would frame the photos very nicely. I think that she knew what the lens was telling her, but people didn't always feel they liked how close she got.

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I just think it's incredible that her mind was seeing something so important that she filmed it. I made that decision that I would go to FIT and take up designing. I grew up sewing, and we made everything. Not because "colored people couldn't shop." We just liked to make things. The way I do the filmmaking is that I do kind of sew these stories together. I think it's the same thing that I'm doing. It's just a different medium that I'm using to do it. I am the keeper of the films. No one else would've done it. So I'm the only one that could've done it, and that was my role is to bring it forward. To make it possible for people to see. I feel that it's important. I do worry about because I don't have children, and I do worry about it because no one's going to give a damn when I go. It's over, and that I do worry about that. I think the last film my mother made of us was on the beach. Those are from when I was in junior high school, and I was in junior high school '70, '74, around that time. So I think that might have been the end of the 8mm camera. I think that when she became ill, I was devastated. I felt chunks of her just, you know, go away. You know, I remember one day in the hospital, she said, "Oh, I see my aunties and they're telling me to come." I said, "No! They're not telling you to go nowhere. They are not telling you to go. No, turn around! Aren't they telling you to turn around?" You know, and when I heard that conversation, I was just really devastated 'cause I knew what it meant. Um, she actually held on for quite a bit of time, but she wasn't conscious, and it was difficult, so... She lived a good life, and she fought the good fight, and then she couldn't fight anymore.

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It's those moments that you go, "Wow." You know, how much it matters. But that goes to show you about who the person was. You know, it's about a life. And that, I think, was how my mother felt. That these are lives. These are people who matter. Their faces matter. Their beauty. What they're doing, who they are. They matter. The neighbor has a life. These people have a life. That person down the hall has a life. They're all lives. I think that she wanted to say we were here. We were here, and we did these things. And we were happy when we did them. And, you know, remember us, please. Just for this moment, you're into my life, and that you have a pleasant memory, a pleasant idea of me. Who I am. You just watched a great documentary. -And we made it. -Thanks for watching "Into My Life." -We're three of the co-directors. I'm Grace Remington. -Cassandra Bromfield. -Sarah Keeling. -And we're missing Ivana Hucikova. -Keep watching documentaries. -And keep on watching ours. -That's it. -Perfect. -Okay?

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-Whoo!