CINCINNATI — Dev Thompson walks across the street from the blue house he grew up in. Leaning on the fence and looking out into the woods in South Cumminsville, Thompson stands for a moment without saying anything.
“These are the places I went to escape everything,” he eventually says. “I used to jump in the Mill Creek and take it down to Camp Washington. It was nasty.”
He laughs about it now. But it wasn’t always funny.
Because dirty creek water — once called one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country — was better than staying at home. It was better than the arguments.
Anything was better than the arguments.
It’s why he made a film about it. Even if it’s hard for him to watch now.
“It’s real life,” he said. “Just to go back and relive that, it’s difficult.”
His short film, “Brown Boy,” starts with an argument between Thompson’s mom and dad. Drugs were involved. The actor playing a 12-year-old Thompson can hear the shouts through the walls, through his headphones.
The boy leaves, and he walks into the woods.
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On Wednesday, Thompson walked into the library, up to the second floor and into a room only accessible with an employee's badge. Inside the small room are multiple cameras, several lights and a gray backdrop.
Clarity Amrein puts a microphone on his jacket. Amrein runs the library’s oral history program. This month, it focuses on Black filmmakers — to document our history by telling stories about the present.
“The story of Cincinnati,” she said.
Thompson’s story goes like this: He moved to Atlanta to make movies. And when he got there, he slept in his car in a Target parking lot for months. When Thompson moved back to Cincinnati for heart surgery, he said he came back to a collaborative film community.
They lifted him up. And in the library, Thompson takes a deep breath and looks directly into the camera.
“To all my Black filmmakers out there,” he said. “Tell your story.”
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To watch Thompson’s film and hear from other Black filmmakers in Cincinnati, you can visit the Forest Park Branch Library on Feb. 27. The library's website has more information on the event.
