Watts

In the city of L.A.

In the city of good ol' Watts.

In the city of sin, you can find me.

In the night, in the night.

California.

In the city of L.A.

In the city of good ol' Watts.

In the city of sin, you can find me.

... will they miss me?

That was a look at the powerful new film, If I Go, Will They Miss Me? It centers around a family in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the relationship between a 12-year-old boy and his recently paroled father, who has just returned home from a lengthy stint in prison.

Joining us now, one of the film's stars and executive producers, Danielle Brooks.

Danielle, thank you so much for being here.

Something you obviously believe in s- enough, not just to star in, but to help put on screen.

Oh, for sure.

So yes, the origins of this story, it's written and directed by a guy named Walter Thompson-Hernandez, who's from Watts, where we, we're shooting.

And he originally made this as a short film that won Sundance a few years ago.

A frustrated playwright who's also a middle school theater teacher finds out his ex-girlfriend has started dating his nemesis, the school's principal, played by Rob Lowe.

If I Go, Will They Miss Me? A 12-year-old boy in Watts, California, attempts to connect with his distant father following his incarceration.

TV and Streaming.

Monster on Netflix.

Am I a princess or a prince? Do I have magic powers? Is the monster that I saw on TV here waiting under my bed? When I'm at school all day, what are my parents doing? Like hero stuff, right? My guest this week, Walter Thompson-Hernández, made a movie that's sort of about that.

If I Go, Will They Miss Me? is set in Watts, a working class Los Angeles neighborhood, not that far from LAX.

Any time of day, look up, you'll see airplanes headed to or from the runways at the airport.

The movie's protagonist is a kid named Anthony, Little Ant.

100% Mexican, Mexican American, and, and here I was this, like, half Black, half Mexican boy in this community, you know? And it was incredibly Mexican.

It was, it was...

There was, like, a, a sort of border between Huntington Park and Watts in South Central.

There was, like, a, a railroad that, that divided both communities, but my, uh, my community was in- incredibly Mexican.

You can see it in wide release.

If I Go, Will They Miss Me? A drama that's set in Watts.

The film is written and directed by Walter Thompson Hernandez.

Christy.

The filmmaker, Walter Thompson Hernandez, also made a short with the same name.

He is a former journalist.

And so there is a real groundedness to the sense of place within the Watts housing project where the film is set.

But also these lovely, magical, realist flights of fancy as we are in the the eyes and the mind of this 12-year-old boy who is growing up and trying to figure out what kind of man he wants to be.

That's Positivity Alkaline Water.

Then we have Aqua Equity Water, founded in 2020 by Ryan Morgan in Watts, California.

Donates 10% of its profits to local programs, uses recyclable aluminum bottles, and is actively expanding.

That's Aqua Equity, Equity Water.

Not to a bigger stage, to a smaller one.

A church in Watts, a choir behind her, an old friend at the piano, her father in the pew.

No hit single to protect, no image to manage, just the music she was singing before the world even knew her name.

She had nothing left to prove.

She just borrowed its intensity for the radio.

Amazing Grace is Aretha returning the fire to where it came from.

The sessions took place over two nights at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, a community still carrying the scars from the riots a few years earlier.

Reverend James Cleveland, a giant of gospel music in his own right and a longtime friend, led the service and took over piano.

Um, the song is This Bitter Earth, sung by Dinah Washington.

This is Burnett's 1978 masterwork set in the Watts neighborhood of LA.

Basically follows a husband, a father.

He's a slaughterhouse worker.

Like, this is the same man that helped broker a peace deal with the Crips and Bloods.

Like, what was that? The 1992 Watts gang truce in L.A.

designed to reduce gang violence.

Like, his status is more than football.