Mary Morten always has her fingers in the pot of social change, especially when it impacts the African-American and LGBT communities in Chicago. The president of consulting firm Morten Group and former LGBT liaison to Mayor Richard M. Daley has most recently been working on two separate projects: the LGBT Community Needs Assessment and her latest documentary, Woke Up Black.
On Oct. 7, Morten Group launched the Needs Assessment as part of its work with The Chicago Community Trust's newly formed LGBT Community Fund, which will raise and distribute $1 million to the LGBT community over the next three years. The assessment consists of an online survey, focus groups and stakeholder interviews to determine the areas of greatest need within the community. More than 30 community partners in the form of organizations and businesses will help extend the reach of the assessment.
Woke Up Black marks Morten's first feature-length documentary. It tells the stories of five African-American young adults in Chicago and sits them down for a meaningful conversation about images of African-Americans in the media among related topics. Morten based the idea for the film on the Black Youth Project, started in part by Cathy Cohen at the University of Chicago. The project examines the attitudes, actions and decision-making of black youth by asking for their voice and input. The film can next be seen in Chicago Wed., Oct. 26, at Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University at 5:30 p.m.
Windy City Times: In your eyes, what is the most critical part of this Needs Assessment?
Mary Morten: All the different phases of the Needs Assessment are important. We need broad-based support so we can put forward a document that truly speaks to the needs and concerns of the LGBT community. I'm particularly interested in what older LGBT folks have to say as well as what younger LGBT folks have to say because I think often they are not included in some of these conversations. We also want to make sure we reach into parts of the community that may be underserved or may not often be included, which is why we have included community dropboxes so that we make sure we can gather data from individuals that might not be part of a group that might not go to LGBT places on a regular basis.
WCT: How much do the results of this assessment mean to stakeholders who stand to benefit from the money the fund will give out?
Some organizations involved are already funded by The Chicago Community Trust; the Trust has supported LGBT organizations for a long period of time. But the Trust and LGBT Community Fund Steering Committee, in particular, have an opportunity to really develop grant-making that's going to be responsive to the current needs of the LGBT community. This data will really help drive that grant-making. That's very key and unusual that a start-up fund would take this step. I've helped start-up funds in the past as a national consultant to foundations all over the country and this is a unique but very much needed first step.
WCT: How has your new documentary, Woke Up Black, played in some of the early screenings so far?
MM: [The other producers and I] are very excited about the reaction to the film; we've gotten very positive responses. Requests are growing daily in terms of requests for add screening in Chicago and throughout the state of Illinois, but also throughout the country. We had an initial broadcast here on WTTW on June 26; it was a Friday as it turned out so I have to say I was a little concerned about the ratings, so we were very excited to hear from WTTW that we had a great reception and that we actually beat two commercial stations that day. We are looking at possibility of a rebroadcast date this fall.
WCT: What elements of the film address LGBT issues?
MM: There are five documentary subjects and one of the young men, Carter, has two fathers. Someone said during a screening that she appreciated seeing different images of parenting in the film. They were surprised we didn't make a big deal about two gay fathers, but the story isn't about the two gay fathers, the story is about the son but he just happened to have two gay fathers.
We treated it matter-of-fact[ly] because it is matter-of-fact; there was not a big deal to be made about that. In another instance we have Ace, who identifies as genderqueer. She has had a very difficult time with her family—in particular, her father and her stepmother accepting her gender identity and her sexual orientation. And that's, for many people, a very key section of the film because you can see her really struggling with wanting to accept it, but also understanding that for her father and stepmother that this is something they may in fact never accept.
WCT: What challenges were there in making this particular documentary?
MM: The difficulty of following five youth was quite a challenge and that's why I had three producers (Aparna Sharma, Keisha Farmer-Smith, Marisol Ybarra). If it hadn't been for producers I wouldn't have been able to do it. We had to try and keep up with five youth age 16-21 when we started and their schedules, and that was no small feat.
WCT: Long term, now that you can dream a bit bigger for this film, what are your goals for this film?
MM: We do want as many people to see this film as possible that includes not only youth of course, but also policymakers and school administrators. It's very important that we make this film available and we'd like to do that free of charge, that's always been our dream, to give away at least 1,000 if not more copies of the film, but we do need foundational support and we're working on that. We want people to see it and we don't want money to prohibit anyone from seeing it.
We also want to start conversations with regard to the images African-American youth put forward, we want people to think about the socio-economic issues … with regard to the high HIV/AIDS rate, the high incarceration rate, we want to make sure that in talking about programs and the legislation regarding black youth that (policymakers) do something they haven't thought of before, and that is to include youth voices. At the beginning of the film there's a quote from 17-year-old in the Bronx about how we go about making decisions and policy and in no other areas would we consider making plans for a group of people and not include them in the planning, but we do that for youth all the time, and that's definitely the message.
WCT: Looking at all the many things you've done and groups and communities you've advocated for and done work with, how are you able to give your attention to all those things at any given time? How are you able to balance all the things you're passionate about?
MM: Well, I have a very supportive partner of 12 years, Willa [Taylor], and she has been enormously supportive of all my film work and that is a huge help. I am someone who if I didn't have a lot going on it would be unusual. The film has been a labor of love, because you don't really make money in documentary filmmaking, and this fit into my interest in social justice issues, my role as an activist and advocate; it all dovetails very nicely even thought it seems like a lot of different projects.
And it all comes back to trying to make a difference and trying to effectuate change. I have always been someone who has really felt it is important to build bridges within and among different communities that may not interact with each other on a regular basis. I would say my experience over the years led me down my path, you know. How do we get everyone to the table? That's what I'm most interested in.
