Why make the film and then some: The Sonia Eaddy Playbook, When Winning is Not Enough   

Sometimes filming and following a story becomes so hot that you can’t just wait until it’s done. That can take years. The story of eminent domain and how it has and is impacting Baltimore, specifically African Americans needs to be told in real time as much as it needs be contextualized in a documentary. I’m in the position to do both.

Lawyers will tell you can’t beat eminent domain in the courts, but you have a shot in the court of public opinion. Sonia Eaddy and the group Poppeton Now has done just that, through a shrewd strategy of media leverage, organizing and grassroots lobbying. But Winning the stay of demolition of her home and the now recognized historic block of Sarah Ann Street is Not Enough. She and her coalition want to stop the city’s long use of eminent domain to clear African American out of their neighborhoods to make way for developers to build a community for other people. In a speech announcing a formal complaint with HUD that the city’s practice amounts to creating segregation, Eaddy held up the definition of eminent domain is supposed to be a private take for a public use.

“Who is who is the public? They have now created a new public. And it does not look like us. So this for me this is racist. It is prejudice. When it doesn't include us, the us that was here and remain here. [We] worked hard to purchase, what is ours to survive in the city when there was no investment, paying high taxes while living in these deplorable conditions. Baltimore City Government, where's the love? Where is the hope? Where is the faith and belief?”

We are going to continue to follow Sonia Eaddy and her contingent, many people who will be featured who are working to change the way the city does business starting with the developers and working their way down. We believe just by telling this story will evoke change and inspire participation.

Thus we will be making a long form film but also a feed through social media and a website (in progress) that will create a whole new viewing experience.

Stay tuned.