With reporting by Hannah Saunders

A film that documents the rise of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone and the fall of CHOP is in search of a distribution deal.

Filmmaker Jefferson Martin Elliott showed his documentary Our Block as part of the recent Local Sightings Film Festival at the Northwest Film Forum — the 12th Ave theater and education complex that shares the block with the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct headquarters that was a core part of the 2020 Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests that the three-part series documents.

“The way I got involved was I just wanted to be involved with the march. I saw what was happening, I had the time available, I just wanted to be there,” said Elliott, who lived in the University District at the time.

As an independent filmmaker, Elliott says he always carries his camera, and he began documenting the events as they unfolded. After several days of attending the Black Lives Matter marches, protesters would reach out to have their voices heard, which led to interviews.

The 55-minute documentary captures one version of the story of that summer — a story that almost wasn’t told.

“The project just started getting so large that honestly, I started getting nervous and I wanted out,” said Elliott. “I didn’t feel like I was the right person to tell this story.”

As Elliott continued to learn about the ways in which he didn’t fully comprehend systemic racism, particularly in the “bubble of Seattle,” he said, he understood that he wasn’t being the best ally, but he wanted to change that.

The filmmaker said he was inspired by the courage it took for his sources to speak out, and wanted to funnel that energy into Our Block to be the best steward he could, and to let his source’s voices speak for themselves.

“I couldn’t cut their voice or I couldn’t leave someone else to decide what pieces of information they explain are important and what to throw away,” Elliott said. “I’ve learned quite a bit from everyday, being able to experience these acts through other people’s eyes and these stories, and being able to talk with them.”

The second part of the docuseries takes place beyond Seattle in cities like Everett and Marysville. Elliott said he wants to highlight what People of Color in areas beyond big cities are experiencing. The third piece of the series focuses on SPD retaking the East Precinct and moving back in.

While Our Block evolved in ways that Elliott couldn’t have foreseen, he thinks that each viewer will walk away with different experiences and understandings from it.

“I hope that other people, when they watch it, evolve the way they think or feel towards others’ perspectives in real time, and be able to analyze their own ways of thinking, and realize they might too be able to be better allies to people around them,” he said.

Now he is trying to get the full series distributed. He would like to collaborate with partners he can trust. He says the NWFF was crucial in getting the documentary made.

“The film forum, they always found somebody to put me in touch with–to reassure me, to keep me on track and answer my legal questions,” said Elliott.

Elliott also acknowledges how this work wouldn’t be made possible without those who shared their stories on camera.

“This is not my film. I don’t take ownership of it. This film belongs to every single person that was strong enough to tell their story on camera,” Elliott said. “I captured that imagery and I assembled it in a way that was digestible to the public, but I am a small piece in this gigantic picture. So, this is our film.”

You can learn more about Our Block from Rock Paper Scissors Media at rpsmedia.org.

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