Humane Rights with Dr. Akilah Cadet
Episode 13 — Guests: Grace Porras & Sam Bempong of Make It Bay
Akilah: I'm Dr. Akilah Cadet and this is Humane Rights, a show that flips the traditional talk show on its head. This isn't about debate. It's about dialogue. Each episode, I invite guests from different walks of life to unpack the messy, beautiful realities of being human. Welcome to Humane Rights, where being human is the ultimate act of resistance.
Hello. Hi. I am so excited to have this dynamic duo here. We have Sam and we have Grace, and we are going to talk about so many things. But the most important thing is that you were the first dynamic duo for Humane Rights. So.
Grace & Sam: I love that. We love that.
Akilah: We all love that.
Grace: It's an honor.
Sam: It is an honor.
Akilah: Here at Humane Rights, you get to introduce yourself with whoever you think you are today. And one way to do that is by starting with your pronouns and an image description. So I'll role model — my pronouns are bad bitch or she/her just for inclusion. I am wearing a vintage 90s tracksuit that looks very Biggie, Biggie, Biggie, can't you see, on the top. And it's navy blue. And I'm wearing gold heels that are just extra because I am. And we're seated in my beautiful gold studio with Taylor Smalls' art behind us, my yellow book in the corner and on the beautiful leather couch. I have two fabulous folks. So who's going first?
[pause]
Akilah: Oh, I knew that was going to happen. Okay. Pronouns, image description and bio. Who you are. Love it.
Grace: I am she/her/ella. I am currently wearing a red and — I'm going to call it Valkyries purple —
Sam: It's actually Valkyries Violet.
Grace: Thank you very much. I'm wearing a red and Valkyrie's Violet checkered sweater. I'm wearing a white button up shirt. I accessorize my fingers today with some rings, especially my violet gem. I am wearing a high half-up and half-down ponytail and I'm seated next to my co-director, Sam.
Sam: Hi, I'm Sam Bempong. She/her. I like bad ass. Gonna — I'm gonna throw that in there. I'm going to steal.
Akilah: It's not stealing. I'm giving it to you.
Sam: Thank you. Spread it. Spread the word. Yeah, I am. What am I wearing? I'm wearing a green form fitted shirt. And what I like to call my cool girl pants. Yes. They're cream colored with lots of colored flowers. Embroidery. It's like embroidery.
Akilah: They look like they could be curtains.
Sam: Or I like to say, grandma's couch in the best way.
Akilah: Yes, that was my grandma's couch.
Sam: Yeah, yeah. This was my grandma's couch, too. I'm wearing grandma's couch. Cargo pants. Yes. That are secretly overalls that I tucked in to be pants.
Akilah: Smart.
Sam: Shout-out Laura and Raskow for giving me this idea. J's and I am — curly hair. Yeah. No rings. Except for my wedding ring, which is actually special. It's gold melted down from different parts of our families, made together with symbols from the Akan culture, which is my husband's culture in Ghana. So it's my favorite.
Akilah: I love that so much. But also, Grace — you have quite the chain on. What is your chain say?
Grace: Oh, it's my name tag so my mom doesn't lose me. It says, "Gracie." I wear my name tag. Akilah.
Akilah: That's actually how we connected. Yes. That's right.
Grace: Anytime we go to an event, someone's like, you're going to wear this name tag.
Akilah: I'm like, I'm not ruining my outfit.
Grace: And also, it's on my neck.
Akilah: Yeah, exactly. Literally. No.
Grace: It's not happening.
Akilah: Can't stand the sticker name tag.
Grace: Oh, I cannot stand the sticker name tag.
Akilah: Why are you doing this? Hey. Hi. I don't know you, but please, look at my breasts.
Grace: Look at my breasts.
Akilah: That is the first thing I think — I'm like, where do I.
Grace: Yeah, great.
Akilah: And I don't want any of that. Also, I sometimes know when people come up and talk to me. They're like, is that Change Cadet? Is that, is that Akilah? I don't know. Guess harder. If you don't know.
[laughter]
Akilah: It's not to be. So tell the folks what you two do?
Sam: We co-direct an organization called #MakeItBay. We're both different types of producers in our own right. I do a lot of impact producing. Grace is a phenomenal — I'll let her get into it — but I said Academy. Emmy Award winning creative producer. But we came together with a group of amazing folks to create an organization called #MakeItBay, which is really about creating space to build a thriving and inclusive screen sector here in the Bay Area, so our creatives don't have to keep leaving to go to other markets like LA and New York, Atlanta, to places that have made investment in infrastructure to support them. We're really trying to make sure that that happens here, and that Bay's stories can be told by Bay creatives locally.
Akilah: Yes, just so important. Storytelling is crucial to the vibrancy that is Oakland. And Oakland has everything from our beautiful hills to our lakes, to the hyphy culture to Telegraph, to all the different things that we have that makes it a wonderful backdrop for stories to be told. I, too, am a huge proponent of keeping a creative industry here, which is why this podcast is filmed and recorded in Berkeley, California, at a woman owned studio, a woman of color on top of it, with a media company that's just incredible and representative. And I love that y'all have partnered together with Ciel and your work and so many different things. But before we get into the stuff that you do, I would love to hear from both of you. When you hear Humane Rights, what does that mean to you?
Grace: I would argue that storytelling is a Humane Right.
Akilah: Oh yeah. I absolutely — we talk about this all the time, that the power of storytelling has the power of shaping the world that the way that we see it. And so what better way, what better vehicle for us to be able to change the way people see things than through storytelling? Yeah. That's — that's really when I hear Humane Rights. That's really what I think about. It starts there. And then the things that come from that storytelling, from the folks that sit on this couch. Yeah. I love that. Sam?
Sam: Oh, I mean, yes, 100% agree with that. I think storytelling is essential to who we are as humans and how we view and see the world. So I think storytelling is rooted in that. But I also think that Humane Rights are quite literally a group — like a collective set of principles that people agree on, that no one should have to be without, especially in this world of abundance. Yes. Right? You know, the three that I think of most are healthcare, housing, food. Right? No one in a world of abundance — no one should have to be without. I think that's a very literal definition of Humane Rights. Like, what are the things we will not tolerate? A child not have it. Right?
Akilah: Right.
Sam: But I think what does that actually mean in a practical sense? I start thinking about this concept of choice and returning choice to individuals. Right. Imagine if you — if you had the safety of person, the economic security and the community support to be able to leave the job because you're scared of losing your healthcare or to do the thing. What how would you choose to use your energy and your focus and put your and your time? I think the idea of Humane Rights leads to the personal freedom of deciding where you put your energy in time, which is ultimately choice. And I think of the example that I often think about with this is Isaac Newton, right?
Akilah: We're just going to go there.
Sam: I'm just going to let you cook.
Akilah: As the kids would say.
Sam: But if you think about it, like — Isaac Newton was not the smartest person, like compared to everyone in the world. Isaac Newton was not the first person to notice things fall down. Right. But he had the freedom and the choice to sit under an apple tree and ask himself, why?
Akilah: Yeah. Right.
Sam: So how different would your life be if you had those freedom and choices? And I think Humane Rights is about the permission to have those things that we need to decide as a society how to give. And I think, to Grace's point, storytelling is central to that, because storytelling is how we understand the world. So we understand Humane Rights based on the stories we tell about each other or the other. How we understand what is acceptable in our — how you spend your time that's acceptable to the society. That's based on a story.
Akilah: Yeah, right. It's all based on story. Droppin' bars there.
Grace: A little Isaac Newton.
Akilah: For each other for the other. Like that was right. There was a flow. There was a flow happening here. But what you're saying is absolutely true. And we live right now in Donald's America. Not by choice, not by any of our choices, not cared here by other people's choices — where people are stuck and even — and the infrastructure that's supposed to be there to support them for these Humane Rights, those are being taken away from them. Right. So there's been a lot of news, obviously, around SNAP benefits, and now people are going to have to reapply to SNAP. And what we're going to see is exactly on what's page — on page 299 of Project 2025, which is making it harder to live. Like they literally want it to, you know, make it harder to live.
Sam: Yup.
Akilah: I bring that up because when we think about the creative industry and what you're doing with #MakeItBay and just being a creative, however that may be — the grip to the writer, to the director, to a producer, it is not an easy life. Not everyone is Ava DuVernay. You know, not everyone is in a position where they can have their own studio and space and name and recognition. So how are you doing that with #MakeItBay? Tell us a little bit more about that.
Sam: Yeah, it definitely starts with creating sustainable infrastructure. If we create opportunities for our young folks, our creatives, emerging creators — honestly creators at whatever level you're at — if we create sustainable infrastructure that they can plug into, be it a job, opportunities, internships, all of those things, then we're actually giving them pathway and runway to be able to build their skills here at home. And so we're no longer — we talk about this a lot, you know, reversing the creative brain drain. We're no longer relying on markets like New York and LA and Atlanta to give them the opportunities. We're creating them right here. And I think that because the Bay is so central to so many cultural movements, it's an opportunity for us to actually, like, cultivate that talent and really cultivate the stories that are in them. Because they live in a place like this, and then those stories have an opportunity to be seen and heard by the world. So central to our work is building infrastructure that's lasting, that's sustainable, that's accessible.
Grace: I love what Sam says all the time. Like, imagine a production hub where single parents can have a career in production, where the hours on set are not 12 hours, 14 hours, and grueling on your body. Like, imagine if our — we were actually thinking about the types of folks we wanted to employ in production. That's game changing. Nobody's ever thought of that. What better place than the Bay to be creating that ecosystem?
Akilah: Yeah. So true on so many levels.
Sam: Yeah, yeah. Just seconding all of that. I mean, you hear so many people talking about the industries being dead and everything's changing and all that stuff. Content is not going anywhere, right?
Grace: It's not. It's in more demand than ever before.
Sam: The business model is changing, but that is a huge opportunity. Right? Out of fire is regeneration. And...
Akilah: What do you just wake up and say?
Grace: She does. She does.
Sam: Just don't know who — I just. I read a lot and I think a lot. It's like part of my self-care routine.
Akilah: Wow. That. Just... We have to pause on that. Like,
Sam: You know, I can't take credit for that. I just — I'm in the middle of a book called The Content Trap, and I cannot remember the man's name,
Grace: But it starts with a "B".
Akilah: That's okay.
Sam: The Google it. Google it. The Content Trap.
Grace: Or DuckDuckGo it. Yeah.
Sam: There we go. There we go. But he does this beautiful analogy of digital fires and wildfires and the regeneration that comes from it. And I think about — if we're traditional hubs are set up to make traditional media for traditional audiences. We are not a traditional hub. We are creating what we can be in a moment when the future of the screen sector and a film and television and of content is rapidly changing. So we have the opportunity to build something different. Right? As someone who's dealt with disability and with illness, I could not participate in a traditional model of set. Is that mean that my contribution is not valuable? Technically to Hollywood, it means it's not because there's only one trailer that's ADA compliant.
Akilah: Yes. Just 100%. Just literally one. Also I will say Jim Lebrecht is a good friend. He was the co-director of Crip Camp. They didn't have a ramp at the Academy Awards for them, and they had to build it like the day before because they didn't. There was not an awareness that that was something that was needed. He's — you know, working with someone like Jim LeBrecht and talking to single parents and saying, you have value. What does this need to build? And it's still a financially viable model, right? It's — if you can create anything, let's play. Let's have beginner's mind. Let's approach what the industry could be and build it. It doesn't mean it's going to be for everyone. It doesn't mean we're going to have every. We don't need every film ever to come here. We don't need to be the most important. We just want to be able to be a home for independent filmmakers and for people who want to create and tell stories, to have the space and the support to do so.
Akilah: Absolutely. I love Jim. Jim is... He's so good. He's great for so many reasons. But what you're saying is true. We can't think about the film and TV industry without thinking about intersectionality and how that fits in. Right. We are all parts of intersectionality. Women. Women of color. Disability. Chronic illness. We're not supposed to be successful. I mean, the list goes on and on. You know, of how we are all here in a position to say, we need to tell these stories. We know the Bay Area has a lot to offer. Let's elevate and amplify. So you were able to get to a point where you have this "great list?"
Grace & Sam: Oh, the Bay List!
Sam: Yeah yeah yeah.
Akilah: Yeah. Oh, that thing? Yeah.
Grace: Just a little thing.
Sam: Yeah. That is shout-out to Rafael Casal. This was his brainchild. You know, I just feel so lucky and special because I've had conversations with Rafa (Casal), with Kamau (Bell), with Jim (LeBrecht). Because, again, all about intersectionality and how it's all coming together. But it shows you the power of community that's needed to reinvigorate how important humanity is. And I'm just honored I get to talk to both of you with, like, connecting all of these dots. So —
Grace: I'd also just like to say like they're all from the Bay.
Sam: Everyone you just named, right?
Grace: Everyone who's involved with the Bay List, you know, little company called Proximity Media, Ryan Coogler's company, Unanimous Media, Stephen Curry's company, Decentralized Pictures, Roman Coppola's company. Like Lucasfilm. Right? Like Dolby. Right there from the Bay. Right. The Bay is the place where Lucas and Coppola were like, oh, we need to do something that's different. We're coming here. Why did they come here? Because we're the forefront of every cultural and artistic revolution ever, right?
Sam: Exactly. Yes.
Grace: There's something so important about here. And I got totally off track of the question.
Akilah: No, you didn't.
Sam: I love a tangent.
Grace: But you asked me about The Bay List.
Sam: No, I wanted to — I just. Me and Jim...
Grace: She knows I'm the Tangent Queen. We. Jim invited me because, you know, Jim is part of the academy. So Jim invited me to go see a screening of Knives Out 3 at Skywalker Ranch. And funny story, Skywalker Ranch was a former client of mine, but I was only working with them during the pandemic, so I never got, you know, because we were stuck. And so that was the first time I was able to go and I'm like, oh, this is Star Wars. It's — and to experience a film and the studio that George Lucas built was great. Knives Out was fine. Just wait until it comes out on Netflix. But um., support film. Sorry, support film.
Sam: I mean...
Akilah: Support film. But the Port of Oakland is the inspiration. But people don't know that.
Grace: Yeah. And every time.
Akilah: Every fucking time I drive by going to the city or coming back and setting off the bridge, I'm like, Star Wars.
Grace: Yup.
Akilah: And then when I have to do like the tours of people in town, I'm like, and so here are that, you know, like, these are really, really great things that happened here. And yet we don't have that same excitement and energy as a New York or as LA and even in Atlanta. And Atlanta was later in the game than LA, you know. So anyway, I love a tangent, but Bay List.
Sam: Yeah, well, to speak for Grace, which I unfortunately do too often. But she often says that the Bay's not that good a cheerleader for itself, right?
Grace: But you know what? We are.
Sam: Yeah, we are the great cheerleaders for it. I mean, I have no candle to hold to either of you. I'm only working on my fifth film — but I, documentary, not a film.
Akilah: Then maybe one day.
Grace: It's a film. It's a film.
Sam: Documentary is a film. Like, you know what I mean.
Grace: It's not a narrative.
Sam: But it is.
Akilah: Let you. I'm gonna. I will go back and tell my therapist that I was corrected today. I did. Thank you. You're right. It's a big fucking deal. I'm on —
Grace: Huge!
Akilah: ...on film five. Thank you.
Sam: Yes.
Akilah: Every film is a freaking miracle.
Grace: It's like, that's a t-shirt.
Sam: Maybe that's a t-shirt you all should have.
Grace: You should hand embroider —
Akilah: Oh that is a good one.
Sam: That is a good one.
Grace: Yeah, every film is a miracle.
Akilah: Okay, is a club happening?
Sam: Listen, listen. We love a collab.
Akilah: Yes. Cecilia, make a note.
[laughter]
Sam: We are. Our sweaters say, "Storytelling starts at home." But I think we do need a "Every film is a miracle."
Grace: Wait can I design? Let's do this.
Akilah: I can totally design a shirt.
Sam: Every film is amazing.
Akilah: Market. It's happening. We're in. Okay. I love it. To bring it all back. Now that we have merch,
Sam: Oh, we have merch?
Akilah: We can keep going. With the list you mentioned is the Bay List, which is really Rafael and Franklin Leonard. Franklin Leonard, if you don't know him, he runs the Black List. This is an amazing resource. He's an amazing human. Basically, he was a high level exec reading scripts and was like, "Wow, all these scripts suck." And if they're this good enough to be on my, you know, on my desk, you know, someone's cousin, someone moved to LA and did the hustle to get their script to the right person. And, you know, maybe there's a single mother in North Carolina whose script will who never be able to move and, like, work as a barista and work her way up to get me that script. I want to know what she's writing. And created — it wasn't that quickly, like — he started putting out the list of the unproduced screenplays every year that producers and other studios were saying, oh, we didn't make this, but it was amazing. But then he created this database where anyone in the world can upload a script. They pay readers from the industry to read and evaluate them, and then they put out the best scripts every year. And these scripts have without fail. Like, this is a Harvard study. They make like 80% better at the box office — if I think I'm getting that fact right. But if I... Asterisks in case I'm wrong.
Sam: What I know of you, Sam. You are correct.
Akilah: Yeah. It's like, because these are scripts we want to see. People want to see Juno, the King's Speech, Argo, Slumdog Millionaire — these are all Black Listed scripts. So what Rafa's idea was, why can't...
Sam: I don't know. That's hilarious for somebody.
Grace: They're all... Okay. Yeah.
Sam: It's a good track record.
Akilah: It's fantastic. It's a fantastic track record. And so Rafa was like, well, why don't we have a Bay List? A list that is on the concept of the Black List. We pay readers to evaluate, but it's regional specific. We want to hear the voice of people from this soil. And so he called me and was like, what does that look like? And I was like. Hmmm. No, we were really blessed. The Black List was full partners on this. We got to use their infrastructure and sort of their model, and we had over 1000 submissions in our inaugural year. We had some of our heavy hitters. You know, like I said, Tom Hank's Playtone was involved. It's just like it — can keep rattling them off because I can't even believe, like Hasan Minhaj's company 186K Media. Dave Eggers, 826 Valencia. We have powerhouses here and they all came together. We narrowed it from a thousand scripts to 30. They read all 30, all of the partners did. And then we narrowed it down to ten, and we just announced it at the end of October. And we're getting a lot of industry, you know, feedback and excitement. And we're trying to just really proof concept the talent is here. The talent is here. The innovation is here. Now we need the infrastructure. And that's where #MakeItBay comes in, because these scripts do not have a pathway unless we make one for them.
Akilah: Yeah. And this pathway is crucial to how we can get back to representation. When people feel validated and seen and heard with these stories that they see on screen, that is like planting the seed to the flower that will bloom in so many ways. It doesn't mean that person needs to go out and be a filmmaker, a writer, producer. They just need to know that whatever it is, is possible, right? So, so many white people can see so many white people stories of being white and what that's like. But that's not the same for the white person who's disabled. That's not the same for someone who comes from a family of immigrants. Like, we have to have those stories and that biodiversity is here in the Bay Area for so many reasons. We are the folks who said, no, we don't do snow, so that's why we're here in...
Sam: So accurate.
Akilah: In the Bay Area. And no, no, I'm not plastic on the inside or outside. So I can't do LA. So that's why we're we're here. And so when we tie that back to our history and our culture, it's just it's super, super important. It's also important that we have two women who are leading the way because, you know, we were always solving everyone's problems and in so many ways.
Grace & Sam: So accurate. A gift and a curse. A gift and a curse. For sure.
Akilah: And then the more intersectionality, the more gift and the curse that you're doing.
Sam: Totally.
Akilah: But when you have women doing this type of work, you get thoughtful stories and opportunities that come out of it. So the way I like to explain it to folks is when a guy designs, let's just say a restaurant, the bigger bathroom is always the men's bathroom because he's designing the restaurant. Or the architect is the guy designing the, you know. And then the women's bathroom just has like one and a half stalls and they have like three urinals and then two stalls. It's like, no, no, no other way around.
Grace: There's some speed differences.
Akilah: We all want bathrooms to be gender neutral but they think about themselves in it, right? And guys don't necessarily tend to think more big picture. Not the men in the room here. They are all wonderful and great in so many ways supporting me. Which I think is great.
Sam: Shout-out to feminist men.
Akilah: Feminist men were into it, and those who are anti all the isms and things, which I think is really great. But when you have women in these spaces and places, which is why I'm a fucking Virgo who's everywhere. I'm in sports. I'm in fashion. I'm in tech. I'm doing crisis. Because when you have a woman who's there, we think more about community. We think more about the pathways. We think more about exactly what you said, which is the film industry. If you have a 12 hour a day, you go over time 3, and then there's a union, but then you have have a kid because only a mother is somehow is a caretaker and not a man. And then what do we do with a non-binary person who's a parent? Like we have all these things that are in there. We leave out a lot of the things that we need to be able to have better stories, better resourcing, better teams to get things out. And so as women who carry this, this really important work, having a very successful first year, and I look forward to supporting you. And well, clearly we're going to have merch.
Grace: We are holding you to this.
Sam: In a supportive way. Yes.
Akilah: And we're working on a little party and stuff. I just want to say thank you because you both carry so much in that space, and you also volunteer a lot of your time and, you know, amongst all the other things that you do as producers and directors and storytellers. So I would love to know how you find little pockets of joy.
Sam: Great question.
Akilah: Thank you.
Sam: I since I've been back in the Bay, my pockets of joy literally come from my nieces and nephews. I didn't have that opportunity for 15 years. I was gone from the Bay. And so I find that joy of like, seeing them grow up and helping shape their world. Because, you know, I was growing up with my older cousins when I was here, but we were all cousins. Now these are like nieces and nephews, like a whole generation removed. And so, you know, I brought my nephews to a film event, The Worst Film Festival at Mama Dog Studios, and they're ten and twelve. And they were like amazed. Like they were like, these are the worst films? We love these films. Like the concept of them was like, "Wow, you could do something really bad and people will celebrate you?" And like, that brings me so much happiness. Because I know, like, there's only so much world shaping that the their immediate community can do. So I come in, you know, after being gone 15 years and like get to expand that. And for me, like everything that I do is looking back to see how I could pull up the next generation. So when I can do it for my own family, like — sprinkles, confetti, all the things of joy.
Akilah: I love that.
Grace: Her nephews are adorable and so thoughtful young people, such thoughtful young people. I would say the same: family and community. Definitely my niece and nephew. I have a great rent a kid system going on. I am. I'm the aunt to many age children, and when I feel like hanging out with one, I can. And when I want to go home and take a nap —
Sam: You just do it.
Grace: I can. Yeah yeah yeah. And I highly recommend it.
Sam: Yeah. It's fantastic, but it's a lot of family days.
Grace: I mean... you mentioned... like how... I read and think a lot. I will garden or I'll take a walk. Those are my special places, but really my partner holds me down. Shout-out to Gerald. He's my person. And we find so many moments of joys in the most ridiculous things. And... really being present. And every time I catch myself holding myself to a standard that doesn't need to exist, like I use the word "should" as a red flag. Like if I use the word "should", I'm like. No, no, no no. Warning lights, warning lights. And if I come back to where I am and what the — the parameters of my existence are right now and how I can thrive in there, that's what brings me the most joy. And I will say that storytelling, what we're doing and watching people. Like, I had someone come up to me crying the other day just saying, like, I didn't know someone was checking for stories like mine. Like, I don't, I don't care if I make the list. It was my first time ever finishing a script, but like someone said, you were looking for stories like mine. And that just it — it made me so proud of the work we do. So the community feeds me.
Akilah: Seen, validated and heard.
Grace: Yes. Super important.
Akilah: There's this great book that I highly recommend. It's called, "White Supremacy is All Around." We're going to make sure you get a copy. Well, thank you both for being here and doing the work that you have done, continue to do, will do, are doing today. And I just want to remind you to, "Keep Being Amazing."
Sam: I love how you were like, "Yes!" You ready?
Akilah: Yes, I'm ready. You're gonna catch it..
Grace: Mine.
Sam: You get a car. And you get a car.
Grace: Amazing! Yay!
Akilah: Just know like there will be a by... "All films are miracles."
Grace: Yeah. No. Absolutely. So thank you both.
Sam: And thank you.
Akilah: Let's #MakeItBay!
Grace: Let's #MakeItBay. Like this podcast.
Sam: Like Ciel Space.
Akilah: Yes.
Grace & Sam: Keep Making It Bay. Absolutely.
Akilah: Big love and gratitude to our guests for showing up with truth, humor, and of course, humanity. If this conversation moved you, you got to like it. You got to share it. You have to talk about it, bring it into your circle, spaces and places because that's how change multiplies. You can catch more episodes wherever you get your podcasts and watch the full series produced by Ciel Media and me on the Ciel Media YouTube channel. Now what is that YouTube channel? What you need to subscribe to so you can get more of this. But until next time, stay curious. Find your joy and Keep Being Amazing.
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