How filmmaker Tommy Oliver captured Hollywood's massive Black Lives Matters protest.
Eventually, the truck stopped midway between Highland and Orange on Hollywood Blvd. as the sea of protesters literally ran for as far as the eye could see. Janaya “Future” Khan got on the mic and asked for signs to be lowered and fists raised in a show of solidarity unlike any I’ve ever seen in my life — 50,000-plus strong, all unified.
Some people were capturing it, but a lot was happening that people weren’t seeing in the way it should be captured. You’d see images from Getty or the AP and you’d see that they were looking for shots for the sake of shots. There was so much more to what was happening. People were fighting and potentially putting themselves in harm’s way because there was the risk of catching coronavirus. There’s a strength in that and there’s a beauty in that which needed to be seen.
It was not a choice. I had to be out there. I’m never going to intentionally put my family in harm’s way, but it was a time for me to potentially make a change.While on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, the National Guard told a few hundred of us we had two minutes to disperse or we’d all be arrested. We could see from our vantage point they had already started throwing gas on the other side of their barricade and we heard reports there had been shots fired somewhere in Santa Monica.
That said, change doesn’t happen by sitting by and we have a commitment to the next generation as a duty to pay for those who fought, bled, and died to get us to where we are today. I’ve seen and experienced far too many instances of systemic racism in my life, in this business and out of it, to merely watch from the sidelines and if there’s something I can do to make it better but I don’t, then I don’t deserve whatever platform I may have.
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