Teyana Taylor And Director A.v. Rockwell On Harlem-set Tale, 'A Thousand And One'

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Watch Teyana Taylor And Director A.v. Rockwell On Harlem-set Tale, 'A Thousand And One' - Blavity on Dailymotion

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00:00 As someone who is a transplant from the South

00:03 who lives in Harlem right now,

00:04 even I felt like certain aspects of the movie

00:06 just hit differently by living in the neighborhood

00:09 right now, even seeing the 2000s aspect

00:12 and seeing the part of City on 125th in the film,

00:15 I was like, wow, this is so great.

00:18 So for both of you, to have that connection to New York,

00:21 why was this film such a personal story

00:23 for you as a director and writer,

00:24 but also you as an actress?

00:26 Because I feel like it kind of both loves New York,

00:29 but also critiques New York at the same time.

00:32 It kind of, New York itself is kind of like a character

00:34 in the movie.

00:35 So what was the personal story

00:37 that drew you to do this project?

00:40 - Yeah, I mean, I think I wanted to tell a story

00:43 that honored the era in New York that I grew up in.

00:46 It was just kind of me saying farewell to that time,

00:48 but I think there was also a sense of urgency

00:50 in wanting to see how the change was impacting communities

00:54 that were most vulnerable in the city.

00:55 And I think seeing gentrification firsthand

00:58 and how that was reshaping New York

01:00 in a way that it felt like black communities

01:02 were being pushed out altogether and being erased,

01:04 like as if we never happened.

01:05 I think I'm a New York City kid

01:07 who loves it through and through.

01:08 And so it's like, how do I feel about the fact

01:11 that the city feels like we were being targeted by?

01:13 It's like, the city doesn't love me.

01:15 You know, I think I really, in so many ways,

01:16 wanted to make this movie to reconcile that,

01:19 but also to shine a light

01:21 on the negative impacts of gentrification,

01:24 'cause people really had tried to argue

01:26 for the way people are supposed to be benefiting,

01:27 but it's not supposed to benefit the groups that are there,

01:31 the population that already exists in these communities.

01:33 So I really wanted to shine a light on how it works

01:36 and who it impacts and what that impact looks like.

01:38 - Yeah, yeah.

01:39 - For me, it was definitely a bittersweet,

01:42 you know what I'm saying?

01:43 Because in that era of INAE,

01:47 it's like I was Terry's age, you know?

01:49 So at that age, you know,

01:50 we didn't really understand what was going on,

01:51 but, you know, we remember all the things

01:54 that was so accessible, you know, the block parties,

01:57 the cookouts, how mama and pop, it felt like,

02:00 it was like one big family in Harlem.

02:03 And now, you know, it's just, it's so quiet.

02:06 So to go back home, of course,

02:08 I was excited to go see my friends and, you know,

02:11 and just go to all my favorite food spots

02:14 and my favorite spots,

02:15 so to go there and see that a lot of it

02:17 had been erased on top of just a lot of the seasoning salt

02:22 that was on there.

02:23 It was a lot more bland than Nantes fried chicken,

02:26 you know, than this fried chicken, you know,

02:28 it was giving me more of an uncooked baked wing,

02:30 you know, it was just like, it was a lot to take in.

02:34 And it was even emotional for us to have to rebuild out

02:37 the sweet spots in Harlem, you know,

02:41 it was the bittersweet.

02:42 Yeah, you know, it's like, I'm okay with evolution

02:45 and everybody evolves and different things like that,

02:47 but like a lot of the changes that was being done in Harlem

02:50 wasn't to benefit my community,

02:51 it was to push us out, you know?

02:54 So it was definitely emotional to see

02:55 how much change there were and how unaccessible

02:59 the things that my community needed was.

03:02 - Yeah, yeah.

03:03 And I wanna speak about going through

03:05 different time periods in the movie.

03:07 Like, was that always the, you know,

03:09 when you were crafting the story,

03:10 did you always know that you wanted to touch

03:12 different decades and periods of time?

03:14 And also for you, how was that, you know,

03:16 portraying Inez in two different periods of time?

03:18 Because you feel like, I feel like she,

03:21 she has more life experience,

03:22 like once she comes on screen immediately

03:24 during the next part of the movie,

03:26 we see that she's, I wouldn't say as jaded,

03:28 but like she's gone through so much where you can just,

03:30 even though we're not told exactly what that is,

03:32 we just feel it.

03:34 - I mean, in a sense, I feel like Inez

03:35 has been like gentified, you feel what I'm saying?

03:38 Like she was just so vibrant and, you know what I'm saying?

03:41 And she slowly starts to lose that vibrant accent.

03:45 Her voice is getting lower and lower,

03:48 she damn near is to a place where she doesn't have a voice,

03:51 like that spunk.

03:52 So it's sad to see her change just as much as New York,

03:57 you know what I'm saying?

03:59 And that's the emotional part about it.

04:01 And it was really emotional getting into it

04:03 because we didn't shoot in order.

04:05 So one day I had to be vibrant, young, colorful New York,

04:10 you know what I'm saying?

04:13 And then you see New York become more and more gray

04:16 and more and more glass,

04:17 and you see Inez become more gray and more glass,

04:20 you know what I'm saying?

04:21 Even just the deepness and the heaviness into that

04:24 was definitely a lot.

04:26 - And it was intentional.

04:27 I think just in the ways that I saw parallels

04:30 in the story of New York

04:32 and the way it lost the sense of personality

04:34 as it tried to become a lot more like everywhere else,

04:37 I feel like that in so many ways,

04:38 that is the journey of black women.

04:40 We're not accepted as we are,

04:41 we're not accepted for the things

04:42 that make us unique and special.

04:43 It's like everybody does want to quiet us down.

04:46 - We're tore down.

04:47 - Torn it down.

04:48 - They tear us down, they tear us down,

04:49 like they tear down our whole building

04:51 and rebuild us to be what they want us to be.

04:53 - Yeah, you have to lose that sense of who you are

04:55 in order to be loved by everybody.

04:56 And I think that, I saw an article recently

04:59 that said the sound of gentrification is quiet.

05:01 And I was like, that's what I've been trying to portray

05:04 in this movie.

05:04 And it's like, that is exactly right.

05:06 But I think black women are also told that like,

05:09 maybe if you were a bit more quiet,

05:10 maybe if you talk a certain way,

05:11 maybe if you walk a certain way,

05:13 then maybe life would be better for you then.

05:15 - Or you wasn't so miserable.

05:16 - Considered being miserable for being strong is crazy.

05:20 You know?

05:21 And then in the same nutshell,

05:22 somebody to tell you why you didn't fight back

05:23 on a certain thing.

05:24 It's like, oh, okay, cool.

05:25 So my spiciness is beneficial when it benefits you.

05:29 But when it's to uplift myself, it's a problem.

05:31 - Yeah.

05:32 And that's, Inez, you know,

05:33 portrays that beautifully in this film.

05:35 Love it so much.

05:37 Thank you both so, so much for your time.

05:39 And I cannot wait to, you know,

05:40 to watch this with more people

05:41 because I know more people to do.

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