FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What motivated you to make this film?
The social systems we exist with, including the police, are white supremacist, patriarchal and oppress us all in complex ways.
As media makers, Arresting Power is our way to introduce these ideas about the police as an oppressive force, and not as a
system of safety, to a broader audience and encourage a shift in consciousness.
At some point, a light went on for each of us and we became aware of these ideas. We want that light to go on for everyone.
Why focus the project on Portland?
When people hear about Portland, they are most likely to think of a liberal city where people are progressive and everyone is safe.
And that is just not true.
Oregon has a unique history of institutionalized exclusion of people of color, and that history continues to impact the way things
operate in the state today. In particular, our research shows that the African American community has been historically terrorized by police.
People each year are killed by Portland Police and countless others are harmed. It has so far been impossible to have an officer removed
from the Portland Police Bureau for excessive use of force. This is information that needs to be more widely known.
We have a lot of investment in the Portland community, have lived through much of the history we’re talking about in the film,
and we have been working on police accountability issues for a long time.
Who did you interview in the movie? How did you connect with the people you interviewed?
We interviewed survivors of police brutality, family members of people who have been killed by police, community organizers,
historians and writers. Our list of interview subjects includes: Kent Ford, Dr. Leroy Haynes, Walidah Imarisha, JoAnn Hardesty,
Joyce Harris, Dan Handleman, Kristian Williams, Jason Renault, members of Right to Dream 2, members of the Portland Community
Liberation Front and others.
We already had established relationships with many of these people through our years as community activists and independent media
makers. Others were referred to us by people we trusted in our communities, and who trusted us to tell their stories in a sensitive and
respectful way.
What do you hope this film will do? What do you want people to take away from this film?
We want to activate people. We want people to start thinking outside the box of what it means to have police in our society.
Every radical idea of its time eventually becomes common sense. At one time people believed that segregation was natural.
The idea that slavery should be abolished was at one time unthinkable.
Prisons and police are the questions of our time: How can we keep our communities safe and free of harm without the institutions of police and prisons? It is clear that the current system is not working.
It is possible to establish systems that protect everyone without this high level of social control? We think so. We want all of us to start to imagine new possibilities.
What advice do you have for people who want to get involved in issues around policing?
Learn as much as you can about the topic. Listen to people who come from communities impacted by police violence.
Find out how you can be helpful. Do something small. Talk to other people about the problem.
Do what feels right and true to you. Because of the scope of the problem,
there are many ways that you can address it. Bring curiosity and personal connection. Be open to learn from others.
There are groups in Portland that you can plug into to learn more about the issue.
We currently have a list on our website arrestingpower.com.
Why didn’t you interview police officers for your film?
Police and the police union have access to the mainstream media. We know their side of the story because we hear it so frequently in the news. We want to amplify other stories - the stories of everyday people that are unheard and often unknown. Also: as a general rule, we don’t talk to police unless a lawyer is present. Anything you say can and will be used against you, so there is really not point in speaking with police without appropriate legal protection.
What are your intentions with the Memorial Stories?
The purpose of the Memorial Stories is twofold: (1) we want to represent familiar locations in Portland but add a layer of narrative, a story about what happened at that place, revealing a hidden history, and (2) we want to correct the mainstream media’s misrepresentation of people who have been killed by police, we want to humanize and honor them.
Can you talk about the use of scratched film throughout the project?
The scratched film is an experimental film technique that allows you to get direct impressions from different materials, such as the sidewalks of Portland.
These marks create ghostly textures that we decided to incorporate throughout our film to represent the trauma and pain of these sites.
Much of the information in our film is difficult and emotional the scratch film allows you to take a few seconds to think about what you
have heard and process these stories.
How did you three work together to create the movie?
We work collectively with a real commitment to skill sharing and dialogue every decision we make is processed through conversation.
Tell us about the origins and evolution of the project.
In 2010, there were several police shootings that outraged and mobilized communities in Portland. Julie Perini was working with activist
groups at the time, and she was inspired to create a media art project that would add to the work they were doing.
She received a Project Grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council in 2012 to create the project, and she recruited longtime Portland
activists and media artists Jodi Darby and Erin Yanke. The idea at that time was to create a series of short videos about police violence
in Portland that could be used in a variety of ways: on a website, in an art gallery, by community organizers and groups.
In May 2013, we exhibited the series of short videos as Safe & Sound?: Artists Respond to Police Violence, at Place Gallery during a two month art exhibition. The overwhelming positive response to the installation encouraged us to reach out to an even broader audience.
We also wanted to add more historical and contextual information to the media we had already created. We applied for and received a
2013-14 Precipice Award, which allowed us to continue to work on the film and turn it into a feature length documentary.
We realized that the project had shifted focus toward community resistance, so we renamed it: Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon.
What motivated you to make this film?
The social systems we exist with, including the police, are white supremacist, patriarchal and oppress us all in complex ways.
As media makers, Arresting Power is our way to introduce these ideas about the police as an oppressive force, and not as a
system of safety, to a broader audience and encourage a shift in consciousness.
At some point, a light went on for each of us and we became aware of these ideas. We want that light to go on for everyone.
Why focus the project on Portland?
When people hear about Portland, they are most likely to think of a liberal city where people are progressive and everyone is safe.
And that is just not true.
Oregon has a unique history of institutionalized exclusion of people of color, and that history continues to impact the way things
operate in the state today. In particular, our research shows that the African American community has been historically terrorized by police.
People each year are killed by Portland Police and countless others are harmed. It has so far been impossible to have an officer removed
from the Portland Police Bureau for excessive use of force. This is information that needs to be more widely known.
We have a lot of investment in the Portland community, have lived through much of the history we’re talking about in the film,
and we have been working on police accountability issues for a long time.
Who did you interview in the movie? How did you connect with the people you interviewed?
We interviewed survivors of police brutality, family members of people who have been killed by police, community organizers,
historians and writers. Our list of interview subjects includes: Kent Ford, Dr. Leroy Haynes, Walidah Imarisha, JoAnn Hardesty,
Joyce Harris, Dan Handleman, Kristian Williams, Jason Renault, members of Right to Dream 2, members of the Portland Community
Liberation Front and others.
We already had established relationships with many of these people through our years as community activists and independent media
makers. Others were referred to us by people we trusted in our communities, and who trusted us to tell their stories in a sensitive and
respectful way.
What do you hope this film will do? What do you want people to take away from this film?
We want to activate people. We want people to start thinking outside the box of what it means to have police in our society.
Every radical idea of its time eventually becomes common sense. At one time people believed that segregation was natural.
The idea that slavery should be abolished was at one time unthinkable.
Prisons and police are the questions of our time: How can we keep our communities safe and free of harm without the institutions of police and prisons? It is clear that the current system is not working.
It is possible to establish systems that protect everyone without this high level of social control? We think so. We want all of us to start to imagine new possibilities.
What advice do you have for people who want to get involved in issues around policing?
Learn as much as you can about the topic. Listen to people who come from communities impacted by police violence.
Find out how you can be helpful. Do something small. Talk to other people about the problem.
Do what feels right and true to you. Because of the scope of the problem,
there are many ways that you can address it. Bring curiosity and personal connection. Be open to learn from others.
There are groups in Portland that you can plug into to learn more about the issue.
We currently have a list on our website arrestingpower.com.
Why didn’t you interview police officers for your film?
Police and the police union have access to the mainstream media. We know their side of the story because we hear it so frequently in the news. We want to amplify other stories - the stories of everyday people that are unheard and often unknown. Also: as a general rule, we don’t talk to police unless a lawyer is present. Anything you say can and will be used against you, so there is really not point in speaking with police without appropriate legal protection.
What are your intentions with the Memorial Stories?
The purpose of the Memorial Stories is twofold: (1) we want to represent familiar locations in Portland but add a layer of narrative, a story about what happened at that place, revealing a hidden history, and (2) we want to correct the mainstream media’s misrepresentation of people who have been killed by police, we want to humanize and honor them.
Can you talk about the use of scratched film throughout the project?
The scratched film is an experimental film technique that allows you to get direct impressions from different materials, such as the sidewalks of Portland.
These marks create ghostly textures that we decided to incorporate throughout our film to represent the trauma and pain of these sites.
Much of the information in our film is difficult and emotional the scratch film allows you to take a few seconds to think about what you
have heard and process these stories.
How did you three work together to create the movie?
We work collectively with a real commitment to skill sharing and dialogue every decision we make is processed through conversation.
Tell us about the origins and evolution of the project.
In 2010, there were several police shootings that outraged and mobilized communities in Portland. Julie Perini was working with activist
groups at the time, and she was inspired to create a media art project that would add to the work they were doing.
She received a Project Grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council in 2012 to create the project, and she recruited longtime Portland
activists and media artists Jodi Darby and Erin Yanke. The idea at that time was to create a series of short videos about police violence
in Portland that could be used in a variety of ways: on a website, in an art gallery, by community organizers and groups.
In May 2013, we exhibited the series of short videos as Safe & Sound?: Artists Respond to Police Violence, at Place Gallery during a two month art exhibition. The overwhelming positive response to the installation encouraged us to reach out to an even broader audience.
We also wanted to add more historical and contextual information to the media we had already created. We applied for and received a
2013-14 Precipice Award, which allowed us to continue to work on the film and turn it into a feature length documentary.
We realized that the project had shifted focus toward community resistance, so we renamed it: Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, Oregon.
