Master of Light (2022) Movie Script
1
Light's leaving.
So, there's so much more
I could do at this stage,
and I wanna do, but...
The light's leaving.
It's like the spirit of...
like, redemption.
I've been through a lot,
but I'm still here.
Hello. I'm here to...
try to bond someone out of
Olathe County Jail.
Okay, you'll have to
go to the municipal court.
So, you're gonna
have to turn around
and go back by
the fire department.
Hello. I'm here
to bond my mother out of jail.
Yeah. What's up?
What's goin' on?
I'm sittin' in the lobby.
I don't understand, was
the Olathe warrant for what?
- Anthony...
- For not going to court.
George Anthony, I went to court.
Listen, I don't...
Hey, I'm not the judge.
All I need to know...
All I need to know
is what to say to these people
for you to get out.
They want you, they...
Listen, I don't know.
They're comin' to get you,
and I'm out of 200-and-something
dollars for nothing.
I bullshit you
not, I did not know.
- Hello?
- Hey, what's goin' on?
Nothing much, what's goin' on?
I just was calling to,
well, you know why
I was calling, but...
- not that I need a special...
- Yeah, I heard your, I heard your message.
Well, I'd like to, um,
be able to spend
some time together
and try to do some healing.
And talking, um.
Nuri asks about her grandmother.
She asks me...
She actually just said,
she's in the car listening
right now, but she said, um,
"Daddy, do you have a mother?"
Yeah, I don't know
how to answer that.
Well, I don't know
how this goes, so...
Well,
you know, one of my
patent questions
when I'm first meeting
someone is...
is who are you?
Well, I kind of always
escape through art.
First memories would be
catching my grandmother
smokin' dope.
I would find
my grandmother's
purple Crown Royal bag
with, with a pipe in it.
Kinda... We kinda just...
always lived in...
There was a neighborhood
drug house.
It was our...
That was where we lived.
It was like we were that...
that family, that, that house.
But I would always have these
teachers in elementary school,
I remember Ms. Williams,
that would just pull me aside
and say,
"You got something here."
- You know, try to give me the talk.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
This potential...
that was kind of...
recognized and encouraged
from place to place.
So much of who I am today
is because of my family
and that whole experience
of growing up
in my hometown of Kansas City.
Just imagine how it looked to me
coming back for
the second time in 20 years.
It's just a trip
riding through here though.
This is where... It's boarded up,
but that was one of the last
spots I had right here.
I used to sit right
out here on the steps.
Should look at this shit.
It's crazy.
- When was the last time you seen me?
- On Kensington...
I don't remember
exactly what happened.
I just know you came runnin'
into the house,
and all you hear is the
helicopters and shit outside.
That's all you heard
was the helicopters outside.
We knew that it was for you.
Bro, you came running
into the house.
And you had told me
you had just robbed a nigga
in Parker Square, for 138-balls.
'Cause I had asked you for one,
I said, "Bro, go on ahead",
let me get one, nigga,"
and you like "nah."
It's crazy.
Motherfuckers in my life today
- would never think...
- That that's what it was?
That that's what it was.
Man, I'm so glad I got
pulled up out of that shit.
But you left me in it, though.
Okay. Bro, right there.
Then we gonna take them off...
Okay, I will.
It's not every day...
go back and kinda relive...
some of those memories
and those moments, so.
It's interesting
you point that out, that...
your story, your experiences,
your being seen...
it's no accident.
No mistake.
No wrong path.
I'm always left with this...
- sense of, um, survivor's guilt, in a way.
- Mm-hmm.
I feel like I have
a problem with...
anger.
You believe
that you can help me?
I got a pretty unique type
of trauma going on, man.
Well, George,
let me put it this way.
Because you do the work...
I just sit and be with you,
and, and that's the help
because you're not here
to be fixed.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's an impossibility.
We just continue to experience
more transformation.
Kind of weird.
I don't know this person.
He expects me to just open up
and tell him...
about my life.
He might be just as fucked up
as I am,
for all I know.
I was around,
but I wasn't around.
I was there, but I wasn't there.
At 19, I had five kids.
All I knew what to do
was work and sell drugs.
I gave them everything,
but I didn't give them me.
He grew up in a penitentiary.
When he got out,
the first time I saw him,
I just broke down.
We've been apart for 13 years.
I said, "You don't know me,
and I don't know you."
We didn't have it. That
mother-and-son relationship,
we didn't have it.
Check this out.
Kansas City
native George Morton.
Now, if his talent
doesn't grab your attention,
his story will.
After nearly
a decade behind bars,
in the middle of the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art this week,
you'll find 35-year-old
George Morton hard at work,
copying this Rembrandt,
a way to study
and learn the techniques
of the artist he most admires.
It was Morton's love of
painting that helped him
rewrite his future.
Even behind bars,
he was studying and painting
every chance he got.
In a lot of ways, people that
end up in places like that,
it's easy to write them off
as worthless.
And I was just determined
to prove that wrong.
He recently graduated
from a prestigious art academy...
- Hey, Mama.
- What's up? Something wrong?
I was on the news today.
- Were you?
- Yeah, uh...
Yeah, maybe when you get...
Get home, check out...
channel nine. It's probably
gonna come back on again,
but if not, you can get online.
What was it about?
Uh, I'ma, uh...
I should probably
let you see it,
but just the work
I've been doin'.
They came to interview me
at the museum.
Okay, well just call me later.
- Okay, Mama. Bye.
- Alright.
- Babe? You want to do it now?
- Yeah? Okay.
Alright, Nuri, I'm gonna
need you to focus.
It's unfortunate
she's never gonna change.
I think if my
mother could get real help,
her life would look different.
She's had many people
come to her rescue to help her.
She can't get out
of her own situation.
That's on her, after...
At 50? Come on.
- Can you just try to hold the pose for me? Um...
- Yes, I'm holding my pose.
You, you have no concept.
You're so far removed
from that world.
Man, the way you were raised
versus the way I was raised
couldn't be more opposite.
But has your
mom ever asked for help?
- Sure.
- She has?
- Yeah.
- And what was the result?
It just doesn't last
because she returns
to the same old conditions
that created...
She returns to the same
hopeless conditions,
the same
depressing circumstances.
But then why try to
bring you down and destroy you?
I don't have any kids.
I'm not a mother.
The things that she has done
and said to you, George,
I can't even fathom.
She wants to be
self-destructive, fine,
but then don't try
to inflict pain on you.
And tear you down.
Yeah, you saw some
stuff, heard some stuff.
And you wonder why
I got trust issues.
I still wanna paint her, though.
That is so awesome.
So, what'd you say
when you saw the news?
- Huh?
- What'd you say when you saw the news?
I was shocked. I was amazed.
That was crazy.
I still can't even believe it.
I done been on that news for...
Yeah, for the exact opposite.
- I love you so much.
- Me, too.
So, without further ado,
- George, come on up.
- Alright.
It's been very intense,
studying the incomparable
and unapproachable Rembrandt.
There was,
there was a, a lot of chaos
surrounding his life,
and the lives of many artists
throughout history.
My journey with Rembrandt
started as a boy.
And it deposited something in me
that would later grow.
And so, fast forward,
I ended up getting incarcerated
at 20 years old.
I walk into the, um, to the
prison cell, and there's my mom.
She's there.
They had gotten her, too.
They actually used her
to get to me.
Um... unbeknownst to her,
of course.
Um, and...
she was apologizing,
um, and we sat
in that cell together.
She was released,
and I'm off to federal prison.
And when I, when I began to learn
about some of the systemic...
um, traps for people like me,
instead of it
creating a bitterness,
it created this strive
for redemption.
I would just go to sleep
and wake up every day with...
the question on my mind,
"What is my purpose?"
Like, what is my reason
for being?
Two ounces of crack cocaine.
For that small amount,
probably the equivalent
of a couple walnuts,
I was sentenced to 135 months.
That's 11 years, three months
in federal prison.
All of my 20s
were spent incarcerated.
Photo day with the homies.
These are brothers
in prison together.
Like, whole generations
destroyed.
Fathers in prison cells
with their sons.
Brothers in there
together, like...
Like this shit
was a setup to begin with.
Like all my neighborhood heroes.
I'm seeing 'em
all in here, like,
"Hey, where the fuck you been?"
"Nigga, I been in here
this whole time."
"Really? God damn.
I was wondering
what happened to you."
Just like over and over
and over and over.
I mean, it didn't take no time.
When you're getting sentenced,
you go to this place
that's a transit center
in Oklahoma.
And I swear,
it's like auction blocks.
You know, they got us
all sittin' on these...
on this long block, shackled up,
waiting to be sent
to different prisons
throughout the country.
First picture I painted
when I got there was this one.
And I set it right there
in the recreation department.
And let people line up
and place their orders.
So, I started painting pictures
at the institutions
for the institutions
to finesse transfers.
Like, "Hey, I want to go
to a lower security."
"I don't want to be here.
I'm worried about
my life every day."
And when I got out of prison,
I just implemented the same tactics.
The halfway house was literally
in the hood,
like, the worst part
of the city,
and I didn't know anybody here.
Wherever I would go
to look for a job,
it wasn't going
to be in that area.
I knew that I needed to go
to a location
that would get
my talent recognized,
and I just operated
off pure faith.
First place I ran into
was this gym,
and I saw this
African-American gym owner,
and first place
I go apply for a job,
I get hired because I knew
all I needed to do
was paint one picture
and put it on that wall
like I had done
at every prison I went to,
and then sit back
and watch what happens.
Within not even a month,
maybe a couple of weeks,
a board member for
the Florence Academy saw it.
And within a year of arriving
in the city,
I was in New York, studying at
the most prestigious
art academy in the world.
I just, just felt that if
I just took the next step,
it would open up before me.
You were planning.
One of the best things
I've ever had to witness,
that's for sure,
somebody comin' up like this,
and it was... And just to
watch how it all opened up.
And just watching somebody
being on a path,
and you set your goals and
you're working towards them,
how those things,
when they're falling into place,
- you know you're on the right track.
- Speaking of that,
you were probably
my biggest supporter
in the whole 11-year sentence
that I had consistent.
I'm like, "Auntie, listen,
these are Ivy League teaching me"
- how to trade, teaching me...
- Learn it, learn it, learn it all.
Yeah, she's like,
"What books y'all want?
Here, here! Take it! How much..."
- I'm like, "Can I come, so I can learn?"
- Right.
I would never
cross paths with these guys
- in a million years in Kansas City.
- Right.
But you were perfecting that...
With the art. Yeah. -...as
well as the art. So, to me,
that was like your side hustle,
going on while you're doing...
I had to 'cause, like, what
would I do with art money
if I were to make it?
It can't just be about art.
When I get out,
where am I going to stay?
Location is important.
Sheila:
You weren't playing.
But, like, what,
what are people like that
without those who see it in them
and hoist them up?
Right? And, like, lift them up?
There's no denying you
at the top of that list.
Alright, Mama. I-I-I...
That's... That's...
Okay, I don't want to keep
having this discussion.
I don't want to keep having it.
The issue is you want
some fuckin' money and now
you want to put shit
under the goddamn bridge
because you need something.
Yeah, I'll, I'll talk to you
about it later.
I can't deal
with that right now.
I'm busy! I'm busy!
I'm busy! I'm busy!
Don't "yes or no" me.
I don't owe you shit!
So what the fuck
are you calling me for?
Don't call me
if you don't like me!
Don't call me... Don't call me
asking me for shit...
If you don't wanna talk to me,
if you ain't trying
to be a mother...
Mama, I got to go, aight?
I got to go.
It's pretty dark stuff.
I feel... I feel as if...
darkness is my friend.
Each time you turn back
and you remember a little more
and you see a little more,
and you feel a little more,
you smell a little more,
and it brings up...
your story,
you heal a little more.
Damn, I gotta get this right.
It's not like I
didn't see no wrong in you.
Yeah, I know my older brother
got problems.
One bad decision dictated
what you had set for your future
- at that moment.
- I bullshit you not, Nisha.
Like part of my justification
in my mind
when I was committing
all those crimes,
I'm thinkin' I'd be able
to tell the judge,
"My mama said it was okay
for me to do this shit.
"My grandma showed me!" Like...
Fuck the po... Like, why would
I care about the police
- if my grandma and my mama said it's okay?
- Said it's okay.
We learned from the best.
And you think that's normal?
Why, y'all don't do this?
She showed me
how to cook that shit.
You know what I'm sayin'?
She showed me how to cook it.
"It wasn't no
goddamn mashed potatoes, man!"
Damn.
This is just something that
was never encouraged
in the academic world
where I was trained.
As if it didn't exist.
But, I find this more
interesting than all of those
European heads
that they would make...
Make me draw and paint
over and over and over.
And these are Eurocentric
features, Eurocentric...
skulls, and it's just like
this worship of
all things white.
I was seeking to learn more
about depicting skin tones
that look like the people
I grew up seeing,
like my aunts, my uncles,
my siblings, my mother.
And I wasn't gettin' a lot
of that in the academic text
and in my training.
Why don't we have any...
any plaster casts of this
incredibly subtle
and naturalistic sculpture.
Oh, is it because...
it's depicting Africans
in an elevated
and dignified state?
Why do you feel pressure?
I don't feel no pressure.
I'm only sitting
in Rembrandt's chair.
I mean, it's just another day.
He's looking over you
in the afterlife. You're good.
You say that, but that's funny.
That's really how I feel.
Well, you're here, right?
Um...
I always stand in front
of those Rembrandt paintings
and wonder,
where's that light coming from?
Why does it make me feel
that way?
Like, so alive and present.
I don't know if they were moral
people or compassionate people.
I don't know.
But when I look at the work,
there's something
more underlying the surface.
There seems to be
an inner world.
I'm carrying a tradition
into the future
that, um, people like me
have never been a part of.
It's a beautiful tradition.
It's just that people of
African descent haven't had...
a dignified role in it,
a dignified place in it.
- Hello?
- Ceriyah.
- Yes?
- What's going on?
Uh, they took Mommy.
The bounty hunters,
they came and took Mama.
And they say she had a warrant
and bail and some...
And the thing she said the
warrant was from a year ago.
When did they come and take her?
Last night.
- George?
- Yeah.
Thank you.
What she... What did she...
There was a warrant
out for her arrest...
Yeah, nobody knows what for.
It can be anything
that people do when
their life is hopeless,
and they can't pay
to get out of jail.
They can't pay fines,
they can't pay...
Or they can't show up to court?
They can't show up to court
because they don't have a car,
because they don't have a mommy
who takes care of them or...
They don't have to have
a mommy or a trust fund.
- You don't know. You don't know that.
- But you can show up...
You have no clue
about what they can do!
You have zero clue
what they can do.
Once you're in your 30s...
This is something
we've been seein' all our life.
It's no coincidence that she's
repeating it in front of her daughter.
You know how many times
we had to watch
our mother get hauled off
by bounty hunters?
This is a way of life
that is perpetuated
generationally,
and if you don't understand that
multi-generational... element.
I do, but when a bounty hunter
comes and knocks on your door,
I mean, you're aware.
How do you know what that means?
Has a bounty hunter
ever knocked on your door?
- No...
- I've seen them all my life. I know what it means,
and this is my conclusion.
I can't judge it.
I'm not in it.
I don't have to wake up with
that reality every single day
and have to figure a life out
from a place of negative,
negative zero.
Thank you!
Fuckers broke my door.
- Oh, the bounty hunters?
- Mm-hmm.
- What the fuck?!
- Bro, when I tell you, like,
the bond that
they revoked me on,
I had a court date for
the next week.
Talked to my lawyer
and everything.
They didn't go through
the proper channel.
- But, Ceriyah had to see this shit though.
- All of it!
All of it because
the whole thing about it is
I was standing right here,
talking to a bounty hunter
that get to breakin' this shit,
trying to screwdriver
my door and everything.
I'm like, "Alright,
I'm openin' the door."
I told you I did.
No need to do all of that."
Soon as I open the door,
just like this,
they yanked me out of the house.
I mean, literally yanked me
out of the house,
and Ceriyah's
standing right here.
Tre, I heard you wrote a rap.
Uh, you can call it
a rap, I guess.
Can you spit it for me?
I titled it
"Rap for My Mom and Dad."
- Alright...
- Spit that shit!
I turn my pain into art,
too. I get it.
"Mom, you know
I love you, right?
"I see the things
that you goin' through.
"Keep pushing forward, don't
let this pain get ahold of you.
"I got some hope for you."
"I said I got hope for you,
but really I be praying for you."
"All that smoking
you be doing..."
I could say that
about everything that I paint.
It's really a portrait
of myself.
"Be the best
father that I can ever be.
- "I don't want..."
- My nephew, Treshon,
- I see so much of myself.
- "making money."
- "Trying to make money moves, but it don't work..."
- I feel like...
I've always managed to...
transcend the madness
of my surroundings.
And in his own way,
I think he does the same.
I mean, I've always felt
a tremendous responsibility,
being some sort
of a pillar to them.
And I was there and I was
recalling something you told me
about how the body remembers.
And I'll be damned
if things just weren't,
like, coming to the surface.
I didn't notice
it at first until now,
but is this supposed to be
the person who gives
them everything,
or, like, to be the slave
or something like that?
Um, yeah.
Yeah, they made it look like
he was, he was, um, stealing...
stealing from them.
I can't wait till
you start trying to finish
that sketch of me.
Did you go to Egypt
a couple months ago?
I did.
They're sculpting with
the hardest material
just to show how
advanced they are,
using, like, high-level
mathematics and measurements.
Doesn't Africa have,
like, the strongest metal?
Africa has the
strongest everything.
People, everything. Everything.
They are showing people
performing a ritual
to this so-called deity
that exists
only within yourself,
but they, they, they develop
an elaborate system to awaken it
within yourself
through pictures,
through colors, through ritual.
So, it's not about nothing
outside of Treshon.
It all comes back to you.
We're all having children now.
Some of us are passing
our trauma on...
to this newer generation
of children.
But no matter what he sees,
no matter what
he's going through,
he just had this light,
this inner light.
Why you gotta be so...
Daddy, I feel better now.
That's really good.
It must be the medication.
Let me see your tooth.
Hm...
My tooth is not hurting anymore.
That makes me so happy.
Can I have a kiss?
Thank you.
To them...
it seems like I somehow
made it out.
But it's a fight.
I've barely gotten one foot out,
living between two worlds.
This concept of duality,
this, this dark and light thing,
is applicable to
my artistic process
and the struggles.
And you see
the oneness of it all.
Alright, you can take a break.
This shit ridiculous, bro.
You would have to call around
and check the jails and see...
- Every time yo mama go missing.
- Every time yo mama go missing, for real.
She been doing this shit
since we was kids, bro.
What's the jail number?
Is this the jail number?
No, this is south patrol.
Okay, can you run my mama's name
and see if she got arrested?
This never-ending fuckin' cycle.
How the hell do
you shake that shit?
- Turn right onto
- North Cherry Street.
Then, the destination
is on your right.
World is just set up for...
certain people to lose.
She can't help herself.
Come on, let's go this way.
When my mother walked out...
she hugged me so tight
and just said
"thank you" over and over.
She thought she'd have
to spend Christmas in there.
My daughter was with me.
She didn't know
what was going on.
Mama, don't feel bad.
You weren't planning to go
to jail for a week or two.
No, I wasn't planning...
No, that was not in my plan.
If I had known,
I would've packed for the trip.
- Do you remember me, Nuri?
- Let me find the picture.
- No.
- You don't?
Hm, let me see.
- Bet you don't remember that, do you?
- You don't remember that?
This was at church.
You was with
your grandma in church.
- I missed you.
- I missed you, too.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
Can I have a hug? Thank you.
- Now, you remember?
- Yeah.
Probably still don't remember.
That time, you
was just a baby then.
Yep, that was her.
What have I done that...
you can't... that's so bad
that you can't forgive?
I want a relationship
with all my kids. All of them.
And I can understand the things
that I did in the past.
I mean, I'm not downgrading,
I'm not saying that
I didn't do it,
but every now and again,
sometimes,
you need to forget that
and grow up.
You can't keep living
through the past.
That's all I'm asking.
That's what I'm here to do.
I feel love for her,
even at her lowest.
And I think about the system
that failed her.
And at that point,
I feel frustration.
Even anger.
My mother had me at 15.
We just pretty much
grew up together.
She's like my sister.
She was a hustler.
It's programming you
from the womb.
I was not gonna go to Harvard.
Where was that at in my,
in my foreseeable future?
How was I gonna be Ivy League?
What were my chances?
When the judge sentenced me
to 11 years,
I said, "I'll show you."
When people reject me
to this day
or doubt me even in the least...
I say, "Okay, you'll see."
I feel rejection easy.
I don't really have
a lot of experience
- in, in, in social settings.
- Mm-hmm.
Um...
You know, I left the world
as a child in a lot of ways
and was pretty much frozen.
Your dad bought these?
I can tell.
That's it right there.
You can put your chin down,
turn your head towards me,
and then slightly tilt over,
just like that.
That's good.
You don't know how tempted I am
to even work at a fast food
just to get some money in my
pocket to get me back and forth,
to and from.
Because who is not, like,
walking around broke is me.
I've never been
walking around broke.
Why am I gonna start now?
Bills are due.
Yeah, and this... these
quick fixes ain't gonna fix
those long-term issues...
I mean, I need money
to pay the bills.
Is T gonna go back to selling
drugs? No, I'm not.
So what am I gonna do?
Am I gonna take that
temporary fix? Yes, I am.
To get me up outta
the rut that I'm in.
I'm going to do it.
- And that's where I'm at.
- I'm tired of you being there.
Oh, who ain't tired
of being there but me?
I'm livin' it. You seein' it.
I'm there.
- I'm in it.
- I've been here with you.
- I know all about it.
- I'm livin' it.
So who ain't tired
of being here is me.
Makes me look older
than what I am.
No, it's, um...
work in progress.
There you go.
You about to open this up.
Shit.
It's just a trip.
- What did she say, bro?
- I told you.
It's what it is.
They was gonna lock Tela up,
and they was gonna lock
Tela up for a while,
and Tela didn't
wanna go to jail.
So, Tela had to give up somebody
and she had talked about
she didn't wanna give up you,
but she didn't know nobody else.
I didn't do my time thinking
that Mama could've set me up
to go to prison instead of her.
I just thought she...
Somebody got her high
and used her to get to me.
She was apologizing.
"Oh, I'm sorry for this.
I'm sorry for that.
"Like, I'm sorry for...
doin' this to
George Anthony, like..."
She's never admitted
that shit to me before.
She don't hesitate.
Don't say that.
- So, she wanna see me lose.
- Right, right.
You wanna put me back in jail?
Boy, I love you.
- Mama...
- If I let you use my truck...
- I'm done, bro. Fuck her.
- Yeah.
Get that shit off my speaker.
And she's still on the same
bullshit trying to see me lose,
trying to see me fail.
Fuck her and that painting.
How about that?
When she's making it
plain and clear
that she do not
wanna see me make it in life?
What kind of fucked-up ass-shit
is that from a mother?
She got enough sense to make
all... to do all this fraud
and these fuckin' scams though.
She don't got enough sense
to see, like, goddamn,
this boy got
something positive going on.
- Why would I fuck that up?
- Right.
When the fuck do you ever see
somebody go to jail
for 10 years,
get out and do that
after their mama snitch on them
and put them in there?
So what, what happened
this time when you were at home?
Well...
I learned from
my other siblings...
that...
she may have had
a greater role
in my getting incarcerated
than what I once believed
or wanted to accept.
Um...
On the night
that I was detained,
she brought...
the informant that...
ended up getting me locked up,
supposedly.
That was the, the version
of the story
that I had,
and that's the version
that I, I ran with.
But my siblings and family,
they're all telling me, no.
She literally is the person
who set you up
and put you away
in exchange for her own...
you know, some case
that maybe she didn't want
to deal with or face.
But,
she denies it to me.
And I still just want
to believe her.
Mm-hmm.
I dreamed
I was in the wrong cell.
And you get in trouble
when you're in the wrong cell.
It's like, if they catch you
in the wrong cell,
it's a problem.
And Ashley was there.
Somehow.
It's just always
consisting of...
elements from my new life.
As someone who's
quote-unquote, "free,"
ending up back in prison
with me,
except now I have
to protect them.
You wanna fly
or drive to Kansas City?
We discussed flying.
Am I gonna come to Kansas City?
That's the plan.
Long drive.
When I finally did graduate,
I didn't really have
anywhere to go,
but...
I had a strong partner
in Ashley.
She held me down, and she
supported me and my child.
Hey!
- Hey.
- It's freezing!
Yeah. It's crazy.
It was just super warm.
I know! It was hot in
Atlanta, like sweating...
You weren't exactly raised
to be partners with
someone who...
- spent time... in prison.
- In prison? Yeah.
You know, that
wasn't necessarily...
- what your parents had in mind for you.
- Yeah.
But they're warming up.
You got a gift.
You got a gift from them
under the Christmas tree.
I can't believe that shit.
Like, I think what
ended up happening
is I brought so much
of my, my issues...
into the relationship
that I'm only just now getting
addressed through therapy.
I was a mess!
My anger.
I had a really short fuse.
To have a partner that's
super patient with that...
it's a blessing.
My phone says 12:00!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Niggas is busing.
Ow!
All of our siblings
have been to jail. All of us.
We have been to jail,
but you went to prison, bro.
We've been to jail,
and we, we had more access
to this type of world
that we live in than you do.
Bro, our upbringing
literally deprived us
from thinking the way
that we should be thinking
to where that would've marinate.
Oh shit!
Michael:
That was a 12-gauge right there.
That was... See, that was
something different.
- That wasn't no 22 right there.
- Hey, everybody, welcome to the hood!
Nah, we shoot guns.
- We shoot guns in Kansas City.
- That was!
- What's success?
- You know what I'm saying? Like, what's success
other than
accomplishing your goals...
whatever the fuck they are.
The only person
out of our families
that was destined
for greatness was you.
- How though? How?
- Like, because...
- the one thing...
- What made me so better?
- We grew up in the same household!
- We did. We did.
- We got the same opportunities...
- No, we didn't.
- Oh, so I got more opportunities?
- You did,
- and the crazy part about it...
- I don't think he did.
Where?
Tela was my mama.
Like, when Tela went to jail,
when Tela disappeared
and everybody's dads
would show up to remove them...
I was stuck with Barbara!
I know y'all's daddy!
I'm like jealous!
I remember...
- Listen, I remember us cracking on each other.
- Right!
Like,
"Nigga, nigga, your daddy...
that's why your daddy..."
Y'all used to talk about me!
Like, "That's why your daddy
ain't here, nigga."
- Yeah.
- "My daddy, nigga, daddy..."
My daddy better than yours!"
I used to wanna call
y'all daddy Daddy!
The crazy part about it is
it took for you to go to jail
to actually see the potential
that you had in yourself.
- So you think jail was my opportunity?
- No.
- It was an opportunity.
- And if it was, it was only 'cause he took it that way.
- It's only because it was in me!
- No, I'm not sayin'
that jail was your opportunity.
Jail was your awakening.
How many niggas
you know go to jail?
- How many of them get awakened?
- None.
- None.
- So, if jail isn't inherently good...
That shit gotta burn, dog.
I'm telling you,
that shit was burning
every night
when I sit in my cell,
and I didn't get a letter
from my mama,
when I didn't know Ashley,
when I didn't hear
from my brothers, my sisters,
nobody! That shit was burning!
I swear to God, it was burning.
I swear to God, it was burning.
Swear to God,
I ain't lying to you...
So, George, as we begin today,
I want to invite you
to take in three deep breaths
through your nose and out
through your nose fully...
and deeply.
We welcome the spirit
of the ancestors
who are already with us,
but we honor their presence.
As we fellowship now.
It is for the ancestors.
People think
this world is normal
when it's really not.
Racism is still around...
freakin' people are dying and
everybody just thinks it's okay.
You see the dude
that, um, that, um...
Was jogging?
Him. He was...
And then another dude
was just walking,
and then the cops
was following him,
so he started running.
He got shot.
- He got shot.
- Um...
Breonna Taylor, I believe
her name was,
she was just chilling at home.
She got shot.
Uh, let's see who else.
Trayvon Martin?
He was just walking home.
He got shot.
Martin Luther King, he got shot.
Malcolm X, he got shot.
I mean, you've seen...
You've seen a lot.
You know,
you step out that door,
a lot of people
don't want to see you live.
Hold on, that actually kind of
scares me about life now.
I mean, I get it. I get it.
It seems powerless.
Like, what can you do?
But what you can do
is fight it with knowledge.
Knowledge is your weapon.
Look more closely
at African history,
the African origins
of the world, the whole world.
Every single race
came from people
as dark as our family.
They're scared of you.
Why are you scared?
They know that there is
a giant asleep within you.
And they fear today
that that giant wakes up.
I actually visited my dad.
Right after I got out of prison.
I was able to get
in contact with him.
Before I got locked up,
I had just met him,
and I tried to start
interacting with him.
You know, I was already kind of
grown and didn't need...
much from him at that point.
And you stayed with
us for a while. Good while.
I still remember that one time
where you had
the whole house laughing.
- The beans?
- The beans, boy.
- You tell me that story all the time.
- I said, how the hell?
We was sitting up there,
you was sitting at the table,
ready to eat.
She put some beans
on your plate, you said,
"Ah man, beans again?"
Had the whole house laughing.
It's funny though. My daughter's
the same way right now.
You put some beans in her face,
she going to be like,
"Man, if you don't give me
some chicken nuggets or..."
- "piece of chicken or something."
- How old is she now?
- She 5. She 5.
- Yeah?
Yeah, I had a baby
as soon as I got out.
Um. So, yeah.
She's, uh, she's just like me.
Look like me and everything.
Yeah, that's good.
What's your mother up to?
She just...
- Like, you know...
- I hate to hear it.
Well, I mean, you
know, when you have...
She got an addiction.
You know,
that's what your
grandmother was on.
But back then,
they called it Sherm.
You remember when
Barbara was on Sherm?
Yeah. Man, she would...
I would come over,
and I was talking
to your mother,
and, you know, one thing led
to another, and she said,
"Come on, let's go downstairs."
I said, "What about your mama?"
I'm doing like that.
"Your mama here."
She said, "She don't
even know you're here."
Say what?
And I noticed she hadn't moved.
But she didn't... She was high?
She didn't even know
I was there.
- What was she, just high?
- Just sitting there.
And I walked over there,
and I did like that.
Get the fuck outta here.
And she never blinked
or anything.
- That happened just like that? You did...
- Just like that.
And when she found out
that Tela was pregnant,
she was eight
and a half months pregnant.
- Didn't even notice.
- Didn't even... Not never.
She was sticking way out.
I came over one day,
and she was sober.
Oh man, the shit hit the fan.
"That better not be
you pregnant!
That better be you just full!"
I said, "Yeah, full of baby."
- So... Damn. I never knew that, man.
- Yeah.
That's the way it went.
Having a baby at 15...
I mean, all I wanted was love.
- Right.
- I...
Somebody to love me.
And I figured that
having a baby at 15...
that would be somebody
that can love me.
That I can love.
But not knowing...
what can... the things
that came along with that.
And then when I had to,
I didn't know what to do.
How to do.
I mean, I'm
glad you had me, though.
Thank you. Thank you.
I mean, you was
planned on purpose.
I mean, you was really planned.
Really planned.
Seriously, you just don't know.
You were planned.
Did your daddy tell you
where your name came from?
No, you... I just assumed
that it was a combination
between him and my uncle.
George came from my daddy.
Anthony came from your daddy.
Dwayne came from a guy
that I was liking.
What the fuck?
Why are you giving me
random niggas' names and shit?
Did he at least buy some
diapers or something?
Like...
I'm changing my name
to an African name, like.
I don't want this name no more.
So, who's this nigga?
What's he doing today, like?
Just a guy that
I was liking in school.
- His name was Dwayne.
- He know you named your baby after him?
No!
You know how to do it, Michael?
Damn, when I was locked up,
you motherfuckers was out here
learning how to fish, huh?
Michael:
Y'all also understand
- who we was in Oklahoma for about four years.
- Right.
- Y'all was fishing in Oklahoma?
- Mm-hmm.
Your eyes are probably
better than mine.
Take it through this hole.
You can take it
through this one.
There you go. Connect that one.
That end to this.
There you go.
Want me to throw it for you?
That's good.
- Know how to do it?
- I just need to hold that.
Yep, and then when
you throw it, let it go.
Goddamn!
He like Devon, Michael.
- He's like Devon.
- Oh shit!
Why didn't that work though?
That ain't my fault.
I let it go!
Like, it didn't, it didn't go.
I'ma show you. Let
me show you how to do it.
As soon as you toss it,
you let it go.
I thought I did.
- Is it working?
- Mm-hmm.
Hey, Dr. Kynes. Hold on.
Here, say hi, Mama.
Hello. How are you?
Hello, how are you?
I'm well, thank you.
- Good to see you and meet you.
- Nice seeing you as well.
- Thank you much.
- Alright, she's stepping out.
So, what's going on, my friend?
What's on your heart
and your mind?
I just really
wanna be more light,
less serious,
more happy and, and, um, joyful.
And I just wonder
if life has hardened me
and made me incapable.
Not incapable. Healable.
Not lost.
You know what a relationship
is really about, George?
It's really about
George the adult,
person, man.
And George,
having a relationship
with his inner little boy.
Because you're the only one
who can release him
from the inner prison
that he experienced early on.
An affirmation affirms...
something to yourself.
Like, you tell yourself,
"I am this."
Not "I will be"
or "I need to do."
You'll be trying forever,
you know,
but the minute you say "I am,"
it's done already.
- So, write this one down.
- Write down...
"I am not what
has happened to me."
"I am what I choose to become."
Your mind is a garden
of fertile soil,
and you can plant any seeds
you want in there.
And so what if you began
telling yourself, "I am great"?
I am not what happened to me.
I am what I choose to become.
Tupac wrote a poem about a rose
that grew from concrete.
That's definitely
not a fertile...
gardening place.
But yet, even a rose
can grow from concrete
if you know how to plant that
seed and nourish it, and so...
positivity.
So...
Write those down. We'll put them
on a wall or something.
I mean, the same thing
I told you about...
eagles versus pigeons.
Which one would you rather be?
I remember that.
I always said I wanted
to be an eagle.
- Why?
- Because they fly higher than pigeons.
They fly higher, and
what does that allow them to do?
- See more.
- Exactly.
- Don't be no pigeon, Tre.
- I'm not.
Do you even know where
this place is that I'm painting?
Egypt?
Do you know your name
comes from a place in Egypt?
- No.
- Nuri is in Africa.
It's, um, it's the place where
the Black pharaohs come from.
I knew it!
- See where they're from?
- Yeah.
- What does it say?
- Nuri.
But, I was actually...
I actually asked Nissa
about our ancestors.
- Oh, really?
- Mm-hmm.
But I don't really remember
what she said.
Well, I'm thankful
that the axle didn't break.
'Cause that's what
I thought broke,
but the axle did not break.
I'm about to start painting,
but go ahead.
I paid... George Anthony,
I need to pay for the tow.
Okay. Just send me
the Cash App information, Mama.
I'll get it done.
I need to get to work.
Okay. Thank you.
- Alright, Mama. You're welcome.
- Alright.
I went to Egypt and
saw with my own two eyes
naturalism
thousands of years before
Rembrandt would ever
walk the Earth.
I look at it as a tradition
that preexisted Rembrandt
and my favorite old masters,
and that they kept
the torch burning
for people like me
to step up and take
my rightful place in it.
I see the spirit of just...
like an unwillingness
to just give up.
An unwillingness to fail.
Is it not evident that
there was some beauty
in the ugliness of all this?
That there was some good
that can come out
of a seemingly bad situation?
I think I'ma finish it.
I got... I made
a few attempts already.
I thought that
one was already done.
Hell no. This thing need to look
like you're ready
to start talking.
We're not finished yet.
It'll be a trip if
I can get it in that, um...
museum down there.
Take people to the museum
and be like,
"Yeah, I'm on
the walls in here."
It don't look like
much yet, but...
No, it's gorgeous. I love it.
Light's leaving.
So, there's so much more
I could do at this stage,
and I wanna do, but...
The light's leaving.
It's like the spirit of...
like, redemption.
I've been through a lot,
but I'm still here.
Hello. I'm here to...
try to bond someone out of
Olathe County Jail.
Okay, you'll have to
go to the municipal court.
So, you're gonna
have to turn around
and go back by
the fire department.
Hello. I'm here
to bond my mother out of jail.
Yeah. What's up?
What's goin' on?
I'm sittin' in the lobby.
I don't understand, was
the Olathe warrant for what?
- Anthony...
- For not going to court.
George Anthony, I went to court.
Listen, I don't...
Hey, I'm not the judge.
All I need to know...
All I need to know
is what to say to these people
for you to get out.
They want you, they...
Listen, I don't know.
They're comin' to get you,
and I'm out of 200-and-something
dollars for nothing.
I bullshit you
not, I did not know.
- Hello?
- Hey, what's goin' on?
Nothing much, what's goin' on?
I just was calling to,
well, you know why
I was calling, but...
- not that I need a special...
- Yeah, I heard your, I heard your message.
Well, I'd like to, um,
be able to spend
some time together
and try to do some healing.
And talking, um.
Nuri asks about her grandmother.
She asks me...
She actually just said,
she's in the car listening
right now, but she said, um,
"Daddy, do you have a mother?"
Yeah, I don't know
how to answer that.
Well, I don't know
how this goes, so...
Well,
you know, one of my
patent questions
when I'm first meeting
someone is...
is who are you?
Well, I kind of always
escape through art.
First memories would be
catching my grandmother
smokin' dope.
I would find
my grandmother's
purple Crown Royal bag
with, with a pipe in it.
Kinda... We kinda just...
always lived in...
There was a neighborhood
drug house.
It was our...
That was where we lived.
It was like we were that...
that family, that, that house.
But I would always have these
teachers in elementary school,
I remember Ms. Williams,
that would just pull me aside
and say,
"You got something here."
- You know, try to give me the talk.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
This potential...
that was kind of...
recognized and encouraged
from place to place.
So much of who I am today
is because of my family
and that whole experience
of growing up
in my hometown of Kansas City.
Just imagine how it looked to me
coming back for
the second time in 20 years.
It's just a trip
riding through here though.
This is where... It's boarded up,
but that was one of the last
spots I had right here.
I used to sit right
out here on the steps.
Should look at this shit.
It's crazy.
- When was the last time you seen me?
- On Kensington...
I don't remember
exactly what happened.
I just know you came runnin'
into the house,
and all you hear is the
helicopters and shit outside.
That's all you heard
was the helicopters outside.
We knew that it was for you.
Bro, you came running
into the house.
And you had told me
you had just robbed a nigga
in Parker Square, for 138-balls.
'Cause I had asked you for one,
I said, "Bro, go on ahead",
let me get one, nigga,"
and you like "nah."
It's crazy.
Motherfuckers in my life today
- would never think...
- That that's what it was?
That that's what it was.
Man, I'm so glad I got
pulled up out of that shit.
But you left me in it, though.
Okay. Bro, right there.
Then we gonna take them off...
Okay, I will.
It's not every day...
go back and kinda relive...
some of those memories
and those moments, so.
It's interesting
you point that out, that...
your story, your experiences,
your being seen...
it's no accident.
No mistake.
No wrong path.
I'm always left with this...
- sense of, um, survivor's guilt, in a way.
- Mm-hmm.
I feel like I have
a problem with...
anger.
You believe
that you can help me?
I got a pretty unique type
of trauma going on, man.
Well, George,
let me put it this way.
Because you do the work...
I just sit and be with you,
and, and that's the help
because you're not here
to be fixed.
- Mm-hmm.
- It's an impossibility.
We just continue to experience
more transformation.
Kind of weird.
I don't know this person.
He expects me to just open up
and tell him...
about my life.
He might be just as fucked up
as I am,
for all I know.
I was around,
but I wasn't around.
I was there, but I wasn't there.
At 19, I had five kids.
All I knew what to do
was work and sell drugs.
I gave them everything,
but I didn't give them me.
He grew up in a penitentiary.
When he got out,
the first time I saw him,
I just broke down.
We've been apart for 13 years.
I said, "You don't know me,
and I don't know you."
We didn't have it. That
mother-and-son relationship,
we didn't have it.
Check this out.
Kansas City
native George Morton.
Now, if his talent
doesn't grab your attention,
his story will.
After nearly
a decade behind bars,
in the middle of the Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art this week,
you'll find 35-year-old
George Morton hard at work,
copying this Rembrandt,
a way to study
and learn the techniques
of the artist he most admires.
It was Morton's love of
painting that helped him
rewrite his future.
Even behind bars,
he was studying and painting
every chance he got.
In a lot of ways, people that
end up in places like that,
it's easy to write them off
as worthless.
And I was just determined
to prove that wrong.
He recently graduated
from a prestigious art academy...
- Hey, Mama.
- What's up? Something wrong?
I was on the news today.
- Were you?
- Yeah, uh...
Yeah, maybe when you get...
Get home, check out...
channel nine. It's probably
gonna come back on again,
but if not, you can get online.
What was it about?
Uh, I'ma, uh...
I should probably
let you see it,
but just the work
I've been doin'.
They came to interview me
at the museum.
Okay, well just call me later.
- Okay, Mama. Bye.
- Alright.
- Babe? You want to do it now?
- Yeah? Okay.
Alright, Nuri, I'm gonna
need you to focus.
It's unfortunate
she's never gonna change.
I think if my
mother could get real help,
her life would look different.
She's had many people
come to her rescue to help her.
She can't get out
of her own situation.
That's on her, after...
At 50? Come on.
- Can you just try to hold the pose for me? Um...
- Yes, I'm holding my pose.
You, you have no concept.
You're so far removed
from that world.
Man, the way you were raised
versus the way I was raised
couldn't be more opposite.
But has your
mom ever asked for help?
- Sure.
- She has?
- Yeah.
- And what was the result?
It just doesn't last
because she returns
to the same old conditions
that created...
She returns to the same
hopeless conditions,
the same
depressing circumstances.
But then why try to
bring you down and destroy you?
I don't have any kids.
I'm not a mother.
The things that she has done
and said to you, George,
I can't even fathom.
She wants to be
self-destructive, fine,
but then don't try
to inflict pain on you.
And tear you down.
Yeah, you saw some
stuff, heard some stuff.
And you wonder why
I got trust issues.
I still wanna paint her, though.
That is so awesome.
So, what'd you say
when you saw the news?
- Huh?
- What'd you say when you saw the news?
I was shocked. I was amazed.
That was crazy.
I still can't even believe it.
I done been on that news for...
Yeah, for the exact opposite.
- I love you so much.
- Me, too.
So, without further ado,
- George, come on up.
- Alright.
It's been very intense,
studying the incomparable
and unapproachable Rembrandt.
There was,
there was a, a lot of chaos
surrounding his life,
and the lives of many artists
throughout history.
My journey with Rembrandt
started as a boy.
And it deposited something in me
that would later grow.
And so, fast forward,
I ended up getting incarcerated
at 20 years old.
I walk into the, um, to the
prison cell, and there's my mom.
She's there.
They had gotten her, too.
They actually used her
to get to me.
Um... unbeknownst to her,
of course.
Um, and...
she was apologizing,
um, and we sat
in that cell together.
She was released,
and I'm off to federal prison.
And when I, when I began to learn
about some of the systemic...
um, traps for people like me,
instead of it
creating a bitterness,
it created this strive
for redemption.
I would just go to sleep
and wake up every day with...
the question on my mind,
"What is my purpose?"
Like, what is my reason
for being?
Two ounces of crack cocaine.
For that small amount,
probably the equivalent
of a couple walnuts,
I was sentenced to 135 months.
That's 11 years, three months
in federal prison.
All of my 20s
were spent incarcerated.
Photo day with the homies.
These are brothers
in prison together.
Like, whole generations
destroyed.
Fathers in prison cells
with their sons.
Brothers in there
together, like...
Like this shit
was a setup to begin with.
Like all my neighborhood heroes.
I'm seeing 'em
all in here, like,
"Hey, where the fuck you been?"
"Nigga, I been in here
this whole time."
"Really? God damn.
I was wondering
what happened to you."
Just like over and over
and over and over.
I mean, it didn't take no time.
When you're getting sentenced,
you go to this place
that's a transit center
in Oklahoma.
And I swear,
it's like auction blocks.
You know, they got us
all sittin' on these...
on this long block, shackled up,
waiting to be sent
to different prisons
throughout the country.
First picture I painted
when I got there was this one.
And I set it right there
in the recreation department.
And let people line up
and place their orders.
So, I started painting pictures
at the institutions
for the institutions
to finesse transfers.
Like, "Hey, I want to go
to a lower security."
"I don't want to be here.
I'm worried about
my life every day."
And when I got out of prison,
I just implemented the same tactics.
The halfway house was literally
in the hood,
like, the worst part
of the city,
and I didn't know anybody here.
Wherever I would go
to look for a job,
it wasn't going
to be in that area.
I knew that I needed to go
to a location
that would get
my talent recognized,
and I just operated
off pure faith.
First place I ran into
was this gym,
and I saw this
African-American gym owner,
and first place
I go apply for a job,
I get hired because I knew
all I needed to do
was paint one picture
and put it on that wall
like I had done
at every prison I went to,
and then sit back
and watch what happens.
Within not even a month,
maybe a couple of weeks,
a board member for
the Florence Academy saw it.
And within a year of arriving
in the city,
I was in New York, studying at
the most prestigious
art academy in the world.
I just, just felt that if
I just took the next step,
it would open up before me.
You were planning.
One of the best things
I've ever had to witness,
that's for sure,
somebody comin' up like this,
and it was... And just to
watch how it all opened up.
And just watching somebody
being on a path,
and you set your goals and
you're working towards them,
how those things,
when they're falling into place,
- you know you're on the right track.
- Speaking of that,
you were probably
my biggest supporter
in the whole 11-year sentence
that I had consistent.
I'm like, "Auntie, listen,
these are Ivy League teaching me"
- how to trade, teaching me...
- Learn it, learn it, learn it all.
Yeah, she's like,
"What books y'all want?
Here, here! Take it! How much..."
- I'm like, "Can I come, so I can learn?"
- Right.
I would never
cross paths with these guys
- in a million years in Kansas City.
- Right.
But you were perfecting that...
With the art. Yeah. -...as
well as the art. So, to me,
that was like your side hustle,
going on while you're doing...
I had to 'cause, like, what
would I do with art money
if I were to make it?
It can't just be about art.
When I get out,
where am I going to stay?
Location is important.
Sheila:
You weren't playing.
But, like, what,
what are people like that
without those who see it in them
and hoist them up?
Right? And, like, lift them up?
There's no denying you
at the top of that list.
Alright, Mama. I-I-I...
That's... That's...
Okay, I don't want to keep
having this discussion.
I don't want to keep having it.
The issue is you want
some fuckin' money and now
you want to put shit
under the goddamn bridge
because you need something.
Yeah, I'll, I'll talk to you
about it later.
I can't deal
with that right now.
I'm busy! I'm busy!
I'm busy! I'm busy!
Don't "yes or no" me.
I don't owe you shit!
So what the fuck
are you calling me for?
Don't call me
if you don't like me!
Don't call me... Don't call me
asking me for shit...
If you don't wanna talk to me,
if you ain't trying
to be a mother...
Mama, I got to go, aight?
I got to go.
It's pretty dark stuff.
I feel... I feel as if...
darkness is my friend.
Each time you turn back
and you remember a little more
and you see a little more,
and you feel a little more,
you smell a little more,
and it brings up...
your story,
you heal a little more.
Damn, I gotta get this right.
It's not like I
didn't see no wrong in you.
Yeah, I know my older brother
got problems.
One bad decision dictated
what you had set for your future
- at that moment.
- I bullshit you not, Nisha.
Like part of my justification
in my mind
when I was committing
all those crimes,
I'm thinkin' I'd be able
to tell the judge,
"My mama said it was okay
for me to do this shit.
"My grandma showed me!" Like...
Fuck the po... Like, why would
I care about the police
- if my grandma and my mama said it's okay?
- Said it's okay.
We learned from the best.
And you think that's normal?
Why, y'all don't do this?
She showed me
how to cook that shit.
You know what I'm sayin'?
She showed me how to cook it.
"It wasn't no
goddamn mashed potatoes, man!"
Damn.
This is just something that
was never encouraged
in the academic world
where I was trained.
As if it didn't exist.
But, I find this more
interesting than all of those
European heads
that they would make...
Make me draw and paint
over and over and over.
And these are Eurocentric
features, Eurocentric...
skulls, and it's just like
this worship of
all things white.
I was seeking to learn more
about depicting skin tones
that look like the people
I grew up seeing,
like my aunts, my uncles,
my siblings, my mother.
And I wasn't gettin' a lot
of that in the academic text
and in my training.
Why don't we have any...
any plaster casts of this
incredibly subtle
and naturalistic sculpture.
Oh, is it because...
it's depicting Africans
in an elevated
and dignified state?
Why do you feel pressure?
I don't feel no pressure.
I'm only sitting
in Rembrandt's chair.
I mean, it's just another day.
He's looking over you
in the afterlife. You're good.
You say that, but that's funny.
That's really how I feel.
Well, you're here, right?
Um...
I always stand in front
of those Rembrandt paintings
and wonder,
where's that light coming from?
Why does it make me feel
that way?
Like, so alive and present.
I don't know if they were moral
people or compassionate people.
I don't know.
But when I look at the work,
there's something
more underlying the surface.
There seems to be
an inner world.
I'm carrying a tradition
into the future
that, um, people like me
have never been a part of.
It's a beautiful tradition.
It's just that people of
African descent haven't had...
a dignified role in it,
a dignified place in it.
- Hello?
- Ceriyah.
- Yes?
- What's going on?
Uh, they took Mommy.
The bounty hunters,
they came and took Mama.
And they say she had a warrant
and bail and some...
And the thing she said the
warrant was from a year ago.
When did they come and take her?
Last night.
- George?
- Yeah.
Thank you.
What she... What did she...
There was a warrant
out for her arrest...
Yeah, nobody knows what for.
It can be anything
that people do when
their life is hopeless,
and they can't pay
to get out of jail.
They can't pay fines,
they can't pay...
Or they can't show up to court?
They can't show up to court
because they don't have a car,
because they don't have a mommy
who takes care of them or...
They don't have to have
a mommy or a trust fund.
- You don't know. You don't know that.
- But you can show up...
You have no clue
about what they can do!
You have zero clue
what they can do.
Once you're in your 30s...
This is something
we've been seein' all our life.
It's no coincidence that she's
repeating it in front of her daughter.
You know how many times
we had to watch
our mother get hauled off
by bounty hunters?
This is a way of life
that is perpetuated
generationally,
and if you don't understand that
multi-generational... element.
I do, but when a bounty hunter
comes and knocks on your door,
I mean, you're aware.
How do you know what that means?
Has a bounty hunter
ever knocked on your door?
- No...
- I've seen them all my life. I know what it means,
and this is my conclusion.
I can't judge it.
I'm not in it.
I don't have to wake up with
that reality every single day
and have to figure a life out
from a place of negative,
negative zero.
Thank you!
Fuckers broke my door.
- Oh, the bounty hunters?
- Mm-hmm.
- What the fuck?!
- Bro, when I tell you, like,
the bond that
they revoked me on,
I had a court date for
the next week.
Talked to my lawyer
and everything.
They didn't go through
the proper channel.
- But, Ceriyah had to see this shit though.
- All of it!
All of it because
the whole thing about it is
I was standing right here,
talking to a bounty hunter
that get to breakin' this shit,
trying to screwdriver
my door and everything.
I'm like, "Alright,
I'm openin' the door."
I told you I did.
No need to do all of that."
Soon as I open the door,
just like this,
they yanked me out of the house.
I mean, literally yanked me
out of the house,
and Ceriyah's
standing right here.
Tre, I heard you wrote a rap.
Uh, you can call it
a rap, I guess.
Can you spit it for me?
I titled it
"Rap for My Mom and Dad."
- Alright...
- Spit that shit!
I turn my pain into art,
too. I get it.
"Mom, you know
I love you, right?
"I see the things
that you goin' through.
"Keep pushing forward, don't
let this pain get ahold of you.
"I got some hope for you."
"I said I got hope for you,
but really I be praying for you."
"All that smoking
you be doing..."
I could say that
about everything that I paint.
It's really a portrait
of myself.
"Be the best
father that I can ever be.
- "I don't want..."
- My nephew, Treshon,
- I see so much of myself.
- "making money."
- "Trying to make money moves, but it don't work..."
- I feel like...
I've always managed to...
transcend the madness
of my surroundings.
And in his own way,
I think he does the same.
I mean, I've always felt
a tremendous responsibility,
being some sort
of a pillar to them.
And I was there and I was
recalling something you told me
about how the body remembers.
And I'll be damned
if things just weren't,
like, coming to the surface.
I didn't notice
it at first until now,
but is this supposed to be
the person who gives
them everything,
or, like, to be the slave
or something like that?
Um, yeah.
Yeah, they made it look like
he was, he was, um, stealing...
stealing from them.
I can't wait till
you start trying to finish
that sketch of me.
Did you go to Egypt
a couple months ago?
I did.
They're sculpting with
the hardest material
just to show how
advanced they are,
using, like, high-level
mathematics and measurements.
Doesn't Africa have,
like, the strongest metal?
Africa has the
strongest everything.
People, everything. Everything.
They are showing people
performing a ritual
to this so-called deity
that exists
only within yourself,
but they, they, they develop
an elaborate system to awaken it
within yourself
through pictures,
through colors, through ritual.
So, it's not about nothing
outside of Treshon.
It all comes back to you.
We're all having children now.
Some of us are passing
our trauma on...
to this newer generation
of children.
But no matter what he sees,
no matter what
he's going through,
he just had this light,
this inner light.
Why you gotta be so...
Daddy, I feel better now.
That's really good.
It must be the medication.
Let me see your tooth.
Hm...
My tooth is not hurting anymore.
That makes me so happy.
Can I have a kiss?
Thank you.
To them...
it seems like I somehow
made it out.
But it's a fight.
I've barely gotten one foot out,
living between two worlds.
This concept of duality,
this, this dark and light thing,
is applicable to
my artistic process
and the struggles.
And you see
the oneness of it all.
Alright, you can take a break.
This shit ridiculous, bro.
You would have to call around
and check the jails and see...
- Every time yo mama go missing.
- Every time yo mama go missing, for real.
She been doing this shit
since we was kids, bro.
What's the jail number?
Is this the jail number?
No, this is south patrol.
Okay, can you run my mama's name
and see if she got arrested?
This never-ending fuckin' cycle.
How the hell do
you shake that shit?
- Turn right onto
- North Cherry Street.
Then, the destination
is on your right.
World is just set up for...
certain people to lose.
She can't help herself.
Come on, let's go this way.
When my mother walked out...
she hugged me so tight
and just said
"thank you" over and over.
She thought she'd have
to spend Christmas in there.
My daughter was with me.
She didn't know
what was going on.
Mama, don't feel bad.
You weren't planning to go
to jail for a week or two.
No, I wasn't planning...
No, that was not in my plan.
If I had known,
I would've packed for the trip.
- Do you remember me, Nuri?
- Let me find the picture.
- No.
- You don't?
Hm, let me see.
- Bet you don't remember that, do you?
- You don't remember that?
This was at church.
You was with
your grandma in church.
- I missed you.
- I missed you, too.
- I love you.
- I love you, too.
Can I have a hug? Thank you.
- Now, you remember?
- Yeah.
Probably still don't remember.
That time, you
was just a baby then.
Yep, that was her.
What have I done that...
you can't... that's so bad
that you can't forgive?
I want a relationship
with all my kids. All of them.
And I can understand the things
that I did in the past.
I mean, I'm not downgrading,
I'm not saying that
I didn't do it,
but every now and again,
sometimes,
you need to forget that
and grow up.
You can't keep living
through the past.
That's all I'm asking.
That's what I'm here to do.
I feel love for her,
even at her lowest.
And I think about the system
that failed her.
And at that point,
I feel frustration.
Even anger.
My mother had me at 15.
We just pretty much
grew up together.
She's like my sister.
She was a hustler.
It's programming you
from the womb.
I was not gonna go to Harvard.
Where was that at in my,
in my foreseeable future?
How was I gonna be Ivy League?
What were my chances?
When the judge sentenced me
to 11 years,
I said, "I'll show you."
When people reject me
to this day
or doubt me even in the least...
I say, "Okay, you'll see."
I feel rejection easy.
I don't really have
a lot of experience
- in, in, in social settings.
- Mm-hmm.
Um...
You know, I left the world
as a child in a lot of ways
and was pretty much frozen.
Your dad bought these?
I can tell.
That's it right there.
You can put your chin down,
turn your head towards me,
and then slightly tilt over,
just like that.
That's good.
You don't know how tempted I am
to even work at a fast food
just to get some money in my
pocket to get me back and forth,
to and from.
Because who is not, like,
walking around broke is me.
I've never been
walking around broke.
Why am I gonna start now?
Bills are due.
Yeah, and this... these
quick fixes ain't gonna fix
those long-term issues...
I mean, I need money
to pay the bills.
Is T gonna go back to selling
drugs? No, I'm not.
So what am I gonna do?
Am I gonna take that
temporary fix? Yes, I am.
To get me up outta
the rut that I'm in.
I'm going to do it.
- And that's where I'm at.
- I'm tired of you being there.
Oh, who ain't tired
of being there but me?
I'm livin' it. You seein' it.
I'm there.
- I'm in it.
- I've been here with you.
- I know all about it.
- I'm livin' it.
So who ain't tired
of being here is me.
Makes me look older
than what I am.
No, it's, um...
work in progress.
There you go.
You about to open this up.
Shit.
It's just a trip.
- What did she say, bro?
- I told you.
It's what it is.
They was gonna lock Tela up,
and they was gonna lock
Tela up for a while,
and Tela didn't
wanna go to jail.
So, Tela had to give up somebody
and she had talked about
she didn't wanna give up you,
but she didn't know nobody else.
I didn't do my time thinking
that Mama could've set me up
to go to prison instead of her.
I just thought she...
Somebody got her high
and used her to get to me.
She was apologizing.
"Oh, I'm sorry for this.
I'm sorry for that.
"Like, I'm sorry for...
doin' this to
George Anthony, like..."
She's never admitted
that shit to me before.
She don't hesitate.
Don't say that.
- So, she wanna see me lose.
- Right, right.
You wanna put me back in jail?
Boy, I love you.
- Mama...
- If I let you use my truck...
- I'm done, bro. Fuck her.
- Yeah.
Get that shit off my speaker.
And she's still on the same
bullshit trying to see me lose,
trying to see me fail.
Fuck her and that painting.
How about that?
When she's making it
plain and clear
that she do not
wanna see me make it in life?
What kind of fucked-up ass-shit
is that from a mother?
She got enough sense to make
all... to do all this fraud
and these fuckin' scams though.
She don't got enough sense
to see, like, goddamn,
this boy got
something positive going on.
- Why would I fuck that up?
- Right.
When the fuck do you ever see
somebody go to jail
for 10 years,
get out and do that
after their mama snitch on them
and put them in there?
So what, what happened
this time when you were at home?
Well...
I learned from
my other siblings...
that...
she may have had
a greater role
in my getting incarcerated
than what I once believed
or wanted to accept.
Um...
On the night
that I was detained,
she brought...
the informant that...
ended up getting me locked up,
supposedly.
That was the, the version
of the story
that I had,
and that's the version
that I, I ran with.
But my siblings and family,
they're all telling me, no.
She literally is the person
who set you up
and put you away
in exchange for her own...
you know, some case
that maybe she didn't want
to deal with or face.
But,
she denies it to me.
And I still just want
to believe her.
Mm-hmm.
I dreamed
I was in the wrong cell.
And you get in trouble
when you're in the wrong cell.
It's like, if they catch you
in the wrong cell,
it's a problem.
And Ashley was there.
Somehow.
It's just always
consisting of...
elements from my new life.
As someone who's
quote-unquote, "free,"
ending up back in prison
with me,
except now I have
to protect them.
You wanna fly
or drive to Kansas City?
We discussed flying.
Am I gonna come to Kansas City?
That's the plan.
Long drive.
When I finally did graduate,
I didn't really have
anywhere to go,
but...
I had a strong partner
in Ashley.
She held me down, and she
supported me and my child.
Hey!
- Hey.
- It's freezing!
Yeah. It's crazy.
It was just super warm.
I know! It was hot in
Atlanta, like sweating...
You weren't exactly raised
to be partners with
someone who...
- spent time... in prison.
- In prison? Yeah.
You know, that
wasn't necessarily...
- what your parents had in mind for you.
- Yeah.
But they're warming up.
You got a gift.
You got a gift from them
under the Christmas tree.
I can't believe that shit.
Like, I think what
ended up happening
is I brought so much
of my, my issues...
into the relationship
that I'm only just now getting
addressed through therapy.
I was a mess!
My anger.
I had a really short fuse.
To have a partner that's
super patient with that...
it's a blessing.
My phone says 12:00!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Niggas is busing.
Ow!
All of our siblings
have been to jail. All of us.
We have been to jail,
but you went to prison, bro.
We've been to jail,
and we, we had more access
to this type of world
that we live in than you do.
Bro, our upbringing
literally deprived us
from thinking the way
that we should be thinking
to where that would've marinate.
Oh shit!
Michael:
That was a 12-gauge right there.
That was... See, that was
something different.
- That wasn't no 22 right there.
- Hey, everybody, welcome to the hood!
Nah, we shoot guns.
- We shoot guns in Kansas City.
- That was!
- What's success?
- You know what I'm saying? Like, what's success
other than
accomplishing your goals...
whatever the fuck they are.
The only person
out of our families
that was destined
for greatness was you.
- How though? How?
- Like, because...
- the one thing...
- What made me so better?
- We grew up in the same household!
- We did. We did.
- We got the same opportunities...
- No, we didn't.
- Oh, so I got more opportunities?
- You did,
- and the crazy part about it...
- I don't think he did.
Where?
Tela was my mama.
Like, when Tela went to jail,
when Tela disappeared
and everybody's dads
would show up to remove them...
I was stuck with Barbara!
I know y'all's daddy!
I'm like jealous!
I remember...
- Listen, I remember us cracking on each other.
- Right!
Like,
"Nigga, nigga, your daddy...
that's why your daddy..."
Y'all used to talk about me!
Like, "That's why your daddy
ain't here, nigga."
- Yeah.
- "My daddy, nigga, daddy..."
My daddy better than yours!"
I used to wanna call
y'all daddy Daddy!
The crazy part about it is
it took for you to go to jail
to actually see the potential
that you had in yourself.
- So you think jail was my opportunity?
- No.
- It was an opportunity.
- And if it was, it was only 'cause he took it that way.
- It's only because it was in me!
- No, I'm not sayin'
that jail was your opportunity.
Jail was your awakening.
How many niggas
you know go to jail?
- How many of them get awakened?
- None.
- None.
- So, if jail isn't inherently good...
That shit gotta burn, dog.
I'm telling you,
that shit was burning
every night
when I sit in my cell,
and I didn't get a letter
from my mama,
when I didn't know Ashley,
when I didn't hear
from my brothers, my sisters,
nobody! That shit was burning!
I swear to God, it was burning.
I swear to God, it was burning.
Swear to God,
I ain't lying to you...
So, George, as we begin today,
I want to invite you
to take in three deep breaths
through your nose and out
through your nose fully...
and deeply.
We welcome the spirit
of the ancestors
who are already with us,
but we honor their presence.
As we fellowship now.
It is for the ancestors.
People think
this world is normal
when it's really not.
Racism is still around...
freakin' people are dying and
everybody just thinks it's okay.
You see the dude
that, um, that, um...
Was jogging?
Him. He was...
And then another dude
was just walking,
and then the cops
was following him,
so he started running.
He got shot.
- He got shot.
- Um...
Breonna Taylor, I believe
her name was,
she was just chilling at home.
She got shot.
Uh, let's see who else.
Trayvon Martin?
He was just walking home.
He got shot.
Martin Luther King, he got shot.
Malcolm X, he got shot.
I mean, you've seen...
You've seen a lot.
You know,
you step out that door,
a lot of people
don't want to see you live.
Hold on, that actually kind of
scares me about life now.
I mean, I get it. I get it.
It seems powerless.
Like, what can you do?
But what you can do
is fight it with knowledge.
Knowledge is your weapon.
Look more closely
at African history,
the African origins
of the world, the whole world.
Every single race
came from people
as dark as our family.
They're scared of you.
Why are you scared?
They know that there is
a giant asleep within you.
And they fear today
that that giant wakes up.
I actually visited my dad.
Right after I got out of prison.
I was able to get
in contact with him.
Before I got locked up,
I had just met him,
and I tried to start
interacting with him.
You know, I was already kind of
grown and didn't need...
much from him at that point.
And you stayed with
us for a while. Good while.
I still remember that one time
where you had
the whole house laughing.
- The beans?
- The beans, boy.
- You tell me that story all the time.
- I said, how the hell?
We was sitting up there,
you was sitting at the table,
ready to eat.
She put some beans
on your plate, you said,
"Ah man, beans again?"
Had the whole house laughing.
It's funny though. My daughter's
the same way right now.
You put some beans in her face,
she going to be like,
"Man, if you don't give me
some chicken nuggets or..."
- "piece of chicken or something."
- How old is she now?
- She 5. She 5.
- Yeah?
Yeah, I had a baby
as soon as I got out.
Um. So, yeah.
She's, uh, she's just like me.
Look like me and everything.
Yeah, that's good.
What's your mother up to?
She just...
- Like, you know...
- I hate to hear it.
Well, I mean, you
know, when you have...
She got an addiction.
You know,
that's what your
grandmother was on.
But back then,
they called it Sherm.
You remember when
Barbara was on Sherm?
Yeah. Man, she would...
I would come over,
and I was talking
to your mother,
and, you know, one thing led
to another, and she said,
"Come on, let's go downstairs."
I said, "What about your mama?"
I'm doing like that.
"Your mama here."
She said, "She don't
even know you're here."
Say what?
And I noticed she hadn't moved.
But she didn't... She was high?
She didn't even know
I was there.
- What was she, just high?
- Just sitting there.
And I walked over there,
and I did like that.
Get the fuck outta here.
And she never blinked
or anything.
- That happened just like that? You did...
- Just like that.
And when she found out
that Tela was pregnant,
she was eight
and a half months pregnant.
- Didn't even notice.
- Didn't even... Not never.
She was sticking way out.
I came over one day,
and she was sober.
Oh man, the shit hit the fan.
"That better not be
you pregnant!
That better be you just full!"
I said, "Yeah, full of baby."
- So... Damn. I never knew that, man.
- Yeah.
That's the way it went.
Having a baby at 15...
I mean, all I wanted was love.
- Right.
- I...
Somebody to love me.
And I figured that
having a baby at 15...
that would be somebody
that can love me.
That I can love.
But not knowing...
what can... the things
that came along with that.
And then when I had to,
I didn't know what to do.
How to do.
I mean, I'm
glad you had me, though.
Thank you. Thank you.
I mean, you was
planned on purpose.
I mean, you was really planned.
Really planned.
Seriously, you just don't know.
You were planned.
Did your daddy tell you
where your name came from?
No, you... I just assumed
that it was a combination
between him and my uncle.
George came from my daddy.
Anthony came from your daddy.
Dwayne came from a guy
that I was liking.
What the fuck?
Why are you giving me
random niggas' names and shit?
Did he at least buy some
diapers or something?
Like...
I'm changing my name
to an African name, like.
I don't want this name no more.
So, who's this nigga?
What's he doing today, like?
Just a guy that
I was liking in school.
- His name was Dwayne.
- He know you named your baby after him?
No!
You know how to do it, Michael?
Damn, when I was locked up,
you motherfuckers was out here
learning how to fish, huh?
Michael:
Y'all also understand
- who we was in Oklahoma for about four years.
- Right.
- Y'all was fishing in Oklahoma?
- Mm-hmm.
Your eyes are probably
better than mine.
Take it through this hole.
You can take it
through this one.
There you go. Connect that one.
That end to this.
There you go.
Want me to throw it for you?
That's good.
- Know how to do it?
- I just need to hold that.
Yep, and then when
you throw it, let it go.
Goddamn!
He like Devon, Michael.
- He's like Devon.
- Oh shit!
Why didn't that work though?
That ain't my fault.
I let it go!
Like, it didn't, it didn't go.
I'ma show you. Let
me show you how to do it.
As soon as you toss it,
you let it go.
I thought I did.
- Is it working?
- Mm-hmm.
Hey, Dr. Kynes. Hold on.
Here, say hi, Mama.
Hello. How are you?
Hello, how are you?
I'm well, thank you.
- Good to see you and meet you.
- Nice seeing you as well.
- Thank you much.
- Alright, she's stepping out.
So, what's going on, my friend?
What's on your heart
and your mind?
I just really
wanna be more light,
less serious,
more happy and, and, um, joyful.
And I just wonder
if life has hardened me
and made me incapable.
Not incapable. Healable.
Not lost.
You know what a relationship
is really about, George?
It's really about
George the adult,
person, man.
And George,
having a relationship
with his inner little boy.
Because you're the only one
who can release him
from the inner prison
that he experienced early on.
An affirmation affirms...
something to yourself.
Like, you tell yourself,
"I am this."
Not "I will be"
or "I need to do."
You'll be trying forever,
you know,
but the minute you say "I am,"
it's done already.
- So, write this one down.
- Write down...
"I am not what
has happened to me."
"I am what I choose to become."
Your mind is a garden
of fertile soil,
and you can plant any seeds
you want in there.
And so what if you began
telling yourself, "I am great"?
I am not what happened to me.
I am what I choose to become.
Tupac wrote a poem about a rose
that grew from concrete.
That's definitely
not a fertile...
gardening place.
But yet, even a rose
can grow from concrete
if you know how to plant that
seed and nourish it, and so...
positivity.
So...
Write those down. We'll put them
on a wall or something.
I mean, the same thing
I told you about...
eagles versus pigeons.
Which one would you rather be?
I remember that.
I always said I wanted
to be an eagle.
- Why?
- Because they fly higher than pigeons.
They fly higher, and
what does that allow them to do?
- See more.
- Exactly.
- Don't be no pigeon, Tre.
- I'm not.
Do you even know where
this place is that I'm painting?
Egypt?
Do you know your name
comes from a place in Egypt?
- No.
- Nuri is in Africa.
It's, um, it's the place where
the Black pharaohs come from.
I knew it!
- See where they're from?
- Yeah.
- What does it say?
- Nuri.
But, I was actually...
I actually asked Nissa
about our ancestors.
- Oh, really?
- Mm-hmm.
But I don't really remember
what she said.
Well, I'm thankful
that the axle didn't break.
'Cause that's what
I thought broke,
but the axle did not break.
I'm about to start painting,
but go ahead.
I paid... George Anthony,
I need to pay for the tow.
Okay. Just send me
the Cash App information, Mama.
I'll get it done.
I need to get to work.
Okay. Thank you.
- Alright, Mama. You're welcome.
- Alright.
I went to Egypt and
saw with my own two eyes
naturalism
thousands of years before
Rembrandt would ever
walk the Earth.
I look at it as a tradition
that preexisted Rembrandt
and my favorite old masters,
and that they kept
the torch burning
for people like me
to step up and take
my rightful place in it.
I see the spirit of just...
like an unwillingness
to just give up.
An unwillingness to fail.
Is it not evident that
there was some beauty
in the ugliness of all this?
That there was some good
that can come out
of a seemingly bad situation?
I think I'ma finish it.
I got... I made
a few attempts already.
I thought that
one was already done.
Hell no. This thing need to look
like you're ready
to start talking.
We're not finished yet.
It'll be a trip if
I can get it in that, um...
museum down there.
Take people to the museum
and be like,
"Yeah, I'm on
the walls in here."
It don't look like
much yet, but...
No, it's gorgeous. I love it.