State decision could bring taller buildings to San Diego coastal communities

S1: The state steps in to overrule San Diego's coastal zone height limit.
S2: Certainly there was a sense that there needed to be a low profile in these beach and bay adjacent communities.
S1: I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH. This is KPBS Midday Edition. The unintended consequence that upended careers of black educators.
S2: Prior to Brown , 35 to 50% of the educator workforce was black.
S3: We have no state in.
S2: 2022 that approaches that percentage.
S1: I look back at a world without Roe v Wade through the lived experience of California women and will explore the magic of the film Neptune Frost. That's ahead on Midday Edition. A decision by the state could potentially add hundreds more housing units in San Diego , as well as change the look of the city's coastal communities. A proposed development in Pacific Beach has been given the go ahead to break through San Diego's coastal height limit of 30 feet. California's Department of Housing and Community Development , or HPD , says it has the authority to preempt the 50 year old San Diego voter approved height restrictions. And joining me is San Diego Union Tribune reporter Jennifer Van Grove. And Jennifer , welcome.
S2: Hello , and thanks for having me.
S1:
S2: It's from San Diego Community Housing Corporation. That's an affordable housing developer. And they're proposing to take over this four acre site just west of Interstate five in Pacific Beach. And they're proposing a 4 to 5 story building that would include 60 units that are set aside for very low and low income families.
S1:
S2: The developer is still sorting that out , but it's certainly at least double the 30 foot height limit that's in that area right now.
S1: Is it only affordable housing developments that can be built higher than 30 feet according to the state ? No.
S2: So this project , Rose Creek Apartments , is 100% affordable. But state density bonus law , which is the state law that opens the door to these projects that are over 30 feet high in San Diego coastal zone. That applies to any project that sets aside or any residential project that sets aside a minimum of 5% of units for very low income households or a minimum of 10% units for low income households. So the threshold is actually a lot lower than 100%.
S1: San Diego has had a coastal zone building height limit in place since 1972.
S2: But there just seemed to be this sort of desire to protect homeowners rights , land rights , air rights , however you want to call it. And particularly if you look at some of the projects that were taking place , there's a condo tower right on La Hoya Cove there that I think was built in the mid sixties that might have opened the door to voters being open to this. But certainly there was a sense that there needed to be a low profile in these beach and bay adjacent communities.
S1: Because they'd spoil the view , right ? Absolutely.
S2:
S1:
S2: And the law exists as an incentive to developers to build onsite , affordable units. And so essentially what the state is saying is that a voter initiative , so this initiative that was enacted by the voters and then codified in the municipal code that has the same sort of weights as any other law passed by the city. So it doesn't get any sort of greater treatment because voters approved of the measure and thus it was codified. So for some reason I don't know that it's been tested yet in the coastal zone , but the the state of California is saying , nope , state law , just like in other areas , exempts local law. It applies here in this voter defined coastal zone as well.
S1: How much of San Diego does this decision potentially open up to bigger buildings.
S2: Though ? It's a smaller portion than people might think. So it's not everything west of the five , because California also has the the Coastal Act that covers most of the areas right up against the coast , up and up and down the coast in California. And that's been protected since 1976. But there's this in-between area that San Diego's coastal zone , which is technically known as the coastal height limit , overlays protects. And so it includes parts of University City. It includes actually a fair amount of Pacific Beach , and it includes all of the Midway districts and then some areas in the South Bay , even all the way down to San Ysidro. However , you know , the underlying zones in those areas could be multifamily or single family. So the amount of territory that's kind of being opened up here , I don't want to say it's insubstantial , but it's definitely limited.
S1: You mentioned the Midway District and of course , San Diego has been trying to redevelop that area all around the old sports arena.
S2: What I will say is my understanding is that the city of San Diego is still very interested and. Together. A ballot measure that would appear before voters in November to have them remove the 30 foot height limit from the entirety of the middle district. So all 1324 acres of that area. Because that just creates less less room for confusion. It kind of opens up that that whole area. It's not a blank canvas because there's still zoning , but certainly a more wide open canvas where a state density bonus law that only applies on a project by project basis and it seems to apply to , you know , residential projects. So it's unclear if , for instance , with the city sports arenas site if those developers would be eligible for density bonuses on anything other than their residential towers. Right. So those developers are looking at , you know , arenas , office complexes and hotels in some instances that they you know , they want to build those buildings well over 30 feet high and under state density bonus law. It's not clear if they can do that. So the city is still moving forward with this ballot initiative. The idea is council would likely vote to place it on the ballot next month and then voters will see it in November in the hopes that they can just lift that that sort of barrier and not leave any question marks when it comes to the sports arena parcel.
S1:
S2: I do know that developers have challenged state density bonus law multiple times since 1979. And and the precedent and the case law seems to support the state's position. There's even a very sort of recent example in Banker's Hill that was ongoing for a couple of years , and the courts said that , nope , the developer here , Greystar , was able to take advantage of this 38.75% bonus and build well above what was normally allowed right across the park. And , you know , that might even be a new precedent for certain projects. So the law's been tested and maybe not when it comes to a voter defined municipal issue , but it's certainly been tested and the state has always won.
S1: All right. I've been speaking with San Diego Union Tribune reporter Jennifer Van Grove. And Jennifer , thank you.
S2: Thank you , Maureen.
S1: Today's Juneteenth holiday celebrates the end of slavery in America. But racism and inequality did not end along with it. One of the landmarks along the long road toward equality for African-Americans is the Brown versus Board of Education decision. The Supreme Court ruling in 1954 ended separate but equal school discrimination and began the integration of American schools. But a new book tells the story of a little known consequence of the ruling. Black teachers and principals who used to teach in segregated schools lost their jobs and were replaced by white teachers. The book argues that America lost a generation of highly skilled educators in the process , a loss that has caused problems in our schools to this day. Joining me is Leslie Fenwick , Dean emerita of the School of Education and a professor of education policy at Howard University in Washington , D.C.. Her book is called Jim Crow's Pink Slip The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership. And Leslie , welcome to the program.
S2: Thank you , Maureen. Glad to be here.
S1:
S2: Black principals and teachers started receiving letters from local school district superintendents that if Brown was successful , their services were no longer needed. And keep in mind , the Brown decision never said close all the black schools and take black students and integrate them into the previously all white schools. What Brown said was that separate but equal had no place in American public education and that we were to integrate public schools and integrate public schools only meaning faculty staff , meaning principals there and students. And yet we didn't do that.
S1:
S2: And the blame for their firing , dismissal and demotion was placed on the Brown decision , when in fact it was white resistance to the Brown decision and not the decision , which was miraculous and a watershed moment for America. The tragedy of these educators dismissal was that they were replaced on a near 1 to 1 basis with whites who were less qualified than they. These black educators , they held superior academic credentials and levels of licensure than their white peers. And there's a story about how and why that happened.
S1: And you tell that story in your book. Yes.
S3: Yes.
S2: You know , when we think about racially segregated schools , those schools were segregated elementary , high school , college and graduate and professional schools. And so blacks in the 17 states from Delaware down to Florida , over to Arkansas , Oklahoma , Texas , Kansas , if they desired a college education , they had to attend an HBCU , a historically black college or university. And after that , if they were interested in attending graduate or professional school , if the state based HBCU did not have those graduate and professional programs , they had to go North or Midwest to receive their graduate in professional education. And there they completed what I call in the book an academic migration. They earned their graduate credentials and then returned to the South to be teachers and principals in segregated schools. What we begin to see after Brown immediately is these exceptionally credentialed black educators being replaced by local whites , most of whom had not left their state or , you know , small towns , hadn't experienced an integrated education and hadn't earned graduate degrees at some of the nation's most preeminent institutions. And so this is a great loss , and it's a loss that we've not recovered from in these states. The 17 prior to Brown. 35 to 50% of the educator workforce was black. We have no state in 2022 that approaches that percentage.
S1: Now , you note in your book that right now only about 7% of the country's teachers are African-American. Here in San Diego , as elsewhere in the country , there's been an imbalance. Between the diversity of the student population and a largely white teaching staff.
S2: Maureen , one of the things I was trying to do in the book is push against this myth that after brown blacks fled the education professions to pursue new careers that were now open to them , now that we had knocked down some of the walls of discrimination and in some of the sediments of racism , but that's not what the historical record shows. And in fact , the statistic that you cite and there are others show that we're still living with the fallout , almost the nuclear fallout of this protracted resistance to Brown and refusal to integrate black educators into the then newly evolving , integrated system. And so today of the nation's 3.2 million teachers , only 7% are black. As you said , 11% of the nation's 93,000 principals are black. And less than 3% of the nation's nearly 14,000 superintendents are black. And we can trace these current statistics and 2022 to this kind of massive constriction and decimation of the black educator pipeline. It had a ripple effect in families of educators. Ultimately , black educators were escorted out of the professions of the principal ship and teaching force.
S1: Lamont Jackson of the San Diego Unified is one of the 3% of black superintendents that you just mentioned. There are efforts underway to encourage black college students to take up the teaching profession as a way of expanding diversity in teaching. Are those efforts.
S2: Working ? I do think we've made some progress , but I would like to see greater investment in those colleges and universities that have a strong track record of producing black , brown and other teachers of color. So in 2022 , though , HBCUs only comprise about 3% of the nation's colleges and universities. They produce about 50% of the nation's black teachers. And to a size two , Hispanic serving institutions produce 90% of the nation's Hispanic next teachers. So there is dialogue. There is , I think , an attitudinal support. I just think we have more work to do.
S1: I've been speaking with Dr. Leslie Fenwick , Dean emerita of the School of Education and professor of Education Policy at Howard University. Her book is called Jim Crow's Pink Slip The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership. And Leslie , thank you so much for speaking with us.
S2: Maureen , it's been a real privilege. Thank you.
S1: This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH. Jane Heineman is away today , just in time for the first days of summer. June gloom is disappearing and temperatures are heating up across San Diego. Much of the West has already experienced a heat wave. And now forecasters say a heat dome is about to settle in the Midwest and Southern states. So what are the predictions for this summer as California grapples with an ongoing drought and potential wildfires ? And will San Diego get a pass on the extreme heat ? Joining me is Samantha Connelly , a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. And Samantha , welcome to the program.
S2: Thank you so much for having me.
S1:
S2: So you have that high pressure that's settling over the central southern states and that is impacting us here in Southern California. We also have a high pressure system off to our west as well. So we're kind of sandwiched in between two high pressure systems here , which is bringing us that heat to southern California , especially this week.
S1: When we have a marine layer.
S2: Generally , when we have marine layer clouds , we can see temperatures in the sixties along the coast into the seventies. But this week , the coastal areas looks like they're going to get into the mid to upper seventies. So definitely marine layer is gone and it's heating up along the coast.
S1:
S2: We could have a few spots hit the mid nineties as we get into the latter part of this week.
S1: Though , we're talking about warmer temperatures. Just Sunday , just yesterday , the nearby desert town of Campo reached a frigid 29 degrees.
S2: Those overnight temperatures will plummet , especially in areas like Campo. So the temperatures really did just plummet there overnight yesterday.
S1:
S2: Right now , the greatest chances look to be on Wednesday in the mountains and deserts could see quite a few monsoon showers and thunderstorms in those locations. Can't rule out maybe some making it over to the mountains , into portions of the valleys , but mainly looking at the mountains and deserts for those monsoon thunderstorms on Wednesday and potentially again on Thursday , although chances are a little bit lower on Thursday.
S1: Now there is a tropical storm at the tip of Baja.
S2:
S1:
S2: And as of 10 a.m. and in San Diego County , our temperatures are generally running in the upper sixties to low seventies for sea surface temperatures.
S1:
S2: Okay.
S1: Okay.
S2: Really looking at overnight lows in the mid sixties and pretty much for all inland areas as well in the mid sixties. So definitely increasing the minimum temperatures with that moisture coming in.
S1:
S2: So this heat wave kind of impacting a lot of the state this week. Looks like kind of earlier in the week , the northern part of the state will see the heat. And then as we move into the later part of the week , it's going to impact us more. So it's really just going to impact a good portion of the state this week.
S1: What's going on with this extreme heat wave that seems to be traveling across the country ? Yeah.
S2: So that high pressure that we discussed earlier is kind of settling over the central and southern United States is really the culprit here. We typically don't see something like that sign up until maybe in July. So that's why we're seeing this here and that's why we're seeing the monsoon moisture return maybe a little earlier than we would expect.
S1:
S2: Prediction Centre does produce seasonal temperature outlooks. And right now so this would be for July , August and September for the next three months. They have a slightly favoring above normal temperatures for the next three months. There are higher chances for above normal temperatures as you go a little bit north and east into Utah and Colorado. But they do have a slightly favoring for above normal temperatures. So take that for what it's worth. It could mean we have slightly above normal temperatures or it could be significantly above normal. Hard to say really at this point , but that's what it's looking like right now. Okay.
S1: Okay. Let me let me put you on the spot one more time , because there's been talk that the weather event known as La Nina may not be on its way out and may continue for a third year.
S2: So that's pretty much what La Nina is. And it's currently going on right now. And the Climate Prediction Center is favoring that to continue through the end of the year , actually. So once we get into the fall and early winter , they are showing still about a 50 to 60% chance of winning it continuing as we get into the later part of this year.
S1: And that means what for us , another dry winter.
S2: So the correlation between London and our area is not as strong as maybe some other parts of the United States. But generally what's been studied does mean perhaps it might be a little drier. But again , the correlation is not very strong for us here.
S1: It's another wait and see. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Okay.
S4: Okay.
S1: Thank you so much. I've been speaking with Samantha Conley , a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. Samantha , thank you.
S2: Yeah , no worries. Have a good one.
S1: With abortion rights in jeopardy , many women are sharing their personal stories for those who terminated pregnancies before it was legal in 1973. The memories can be especially painful. KQED health correspondent Lesley MCCLURG has the story of three women.
S4: In 1963 , Pearl Lipner spent a romantic weekend curled up in her apartment in Oakland with.
S5: An extremely exciting young man.
S4: She was 18 years old and she was on the birth control pill. So she was shocked when she found out that she was pregnant. And then the potential father offered to pay for an abortion.
S5: I was going to let you free anybody with me. I had the address of a no till hotel in a extremely ugly part of the city.
S4: When she got there , she handed over 1500 dollars in cash , which is about the equivalent of $15,000 today. And then she entrusted herself to a guy that looked more like a boxer than a doctor.
S5: And he spent what seemed like hours. Cramming.
S2: Cramming.
S5: My uterus full of cause.
S4: God's packing is this pretty dangerous technique that was used back then by unskilled abortion providers. When the procedure was done , the sweaty man called her a cab and then she picked up some pills that caused her uterus to contract around the mound of gauze that was inside her.
S5: If something happened , I would snatch go to the hospital because I'd be immediately arrested.
S4: 24 hours later. She was in excruciating pain alone , so she called a friend who didn't arrive for several more hours.
S5: And by that time , I had passed out on the floor and I was hemorrhaging.
S4: She was lying in a pool of blood on her apartment floor. The friend reached out to someone else who had been a medic in Vietnam. He brought over a bag of O-negative blood that he may have stolen.
S5: Entry is fused on the floor and saved my life.
S4: Years later , Lipner intentionally got pregnant , but she miscarried at five months. She was told that her uterus was torn , potentially from a prior injury.
S5: I was able to get pregnant again. I spent the last approximately two months of my pregnancy on complete bedrest and delivered a wonderful , amazing child.
S4: She went on to work for Planned Parenthood and continues to fight for women's rights today. Right. Women all across the country marched recently for abortion rights. Chanting our bodies , our choice. A few weeks ago in downtown San Diego , women packed seven city blocks. Deborah Bass carried a sign that read End the War on Women.
S3: God gave us body autonomy. He gave us a brain. We don't need somebody telling us what to do.
S4: This is personal for her because back in 1969 , she desperately need an abortion. She was a junior in college.
S3: I was very angry and I felt very guilty.
S4: She told her mother , who then told a friend who had a legal workaround. I mean , legal in the sense that she had to lie to a psychiatrist.
S3: My job was to show that I was crazy and I was going to kill myself if I didn't get an abortion.
S4: Her suicidal performance worked. The psychiatrist connected Bassett to a doctor.
S3: And the next thing I remember is being wheeled down the hallway in the hospital , crying.
S4: Afterwards , she said , she felt really alone and isolated. She basically stopped eating and she put her career and health care on hold for a year.
S3: It was very emotionally damaging. I became depressed.
S4: Ten pretty rocky years later , she had two children with the same man , and along the way she kept her abortion a secret until recently , when she felt outraged reading the leaked Supreme Court opinion. It inspired her to tell her daughter for the first time , which she went through back in 1969. And I was just like , totally stunned. I had no idea. Erin Barth is Debra's 40 year old daughter. The secrecy , the shame , the terror of being young and not even having that option was just kind of astounding. And I think that all hit me like in that moment at once. I was also shocked when my mom told me about her abortion. She opened the conversation by saying , you know , you might not be here today if I didn't have an abortion in 1968.
S3: It was a one night stand.
S4: My mom , Jan MCCLURG , was 24 years old.
S3: We got to this cabin and he built a big fire in the fireplace and there was a big bear rug on the floor in front of the fireplace. I made dinner.
S4: A month later , she woke up feeling nauseous. And then the pregnancy tests that she took in San Francisco at a doctor's office was positive.
S3: And I sit in the bathroom and I bawled. I just cried and cried because I thought I how can this be ? And I can't be pregnant. I don't want to be pregnant.
S4: Then she remembered that she had met a doctor in Mexico City a few years prior on a business trip. The next day she was on a flight to Mexico and the man from her one night stand went along.
S3: We walked down the street and it was kind of a crummy area neighborhood , but it was a regular clinic.
S4: After the alleged boyfriend paid the doctor a hundred bucks , my mom was wheeled away to a surgery room , and the last thing that she remembers before going under was a doctor lifting her legs up into stirrups. And then she woke up and a nurse was blotting some blood between her legs. Later that night , in a hotel.
S3: Room , there was just this gush of blood. I mean , I felt like I was hemorrhaging , was a lot of blood. And I remember just being terrified.
S4: But abortion was illegal in Mexico City , so they didn't dare go to a hospital. Fortunately , by the morning , the bleeding had stopped and my mom felt okay. They flew home separately and my mom basically moved on with her life.
S3: You know , I go years and don't even think about it. And then when I do , I still get so emotional.
S4: Though she doesn't have any regrets.
S3: And there was no way on earth that I was prepared for motherhood. It was not meant to be.
S4: Luckily , she feels like the two children she eventually did have with my father were meant to be. I'm Leslie MCCLURG.
S1: The number of suicides in the Army hit a post-9-11 peak last year , and the rate of soldiers dying by suicide is at its highest level since the Great Depression. The army base with the highest rate of suicides among new recruits is Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. And leaders there are trying new strategies to address the issue. Jonathan Karl reports for the American Homefront Project.
S6: Dozens of soldiers and their family members are milling about a room about the size of a gym at Fort Leonard Wood. This is the resiliency fair part of the base's effort to educate military members and their families about mental health resources. They can watch PowerPoint presentations , pick up brochures , and talk with people who can connect them with help.
S7: We have these other resources here financial , family , physical and spiritual. So they know there's free resources for them.
S6: Marlene Nimitz is retired from the Army and now works as the installation suicide prevention manager. She says the goal is to help people see warning signs of mental health problems.
S7: And if they see a dramatic mood swing. She had that ability to stop and have that conversation to say make sure they know they're part of a team. They're part of organization. They're not alone.
S6: Fort Leonard Wood is promoting things like confidential mental health services and social activities that can help soldiers form friendships. Chaplains are also increasing their role in the effort. Lieutenant Colonel Bradley Guarding is head of the chaplains at Fort Leonard Wood. He says soldiers have total confidentiality with chaplains who are attempting to build those relationships from the moment new recruits arrive.
S7: As a new soldier comes into the army. They are given a brief from a chaplain and those chaplains talk to them about the value of life and the places that they can seek help and get help early.
S6: But some people close to military suicides say the armed forces puts too much of the burden on soldiers to get help , and that doesn't do much to solve the problem.
S2: I think that's absolutely ridiculous. I think it's almost beyond absurd.
S6: Sarah Wilkinson is the widow of a Navy SEAL who died by suicide in 2018. She read Fort Leonard Wood's literature on suicide prevention and says it was way too focused on seeing mental health as nothing more than a means to being ready for combat.
S3: So right there.
S2: What the military is saying is we don't necessarily need you.
S3: To be good for you. We need you to be good.
S2: So you're mission ready.
S6: Advocacy groups agree and say the military should be taking the same approach to training commanding officers to spot the signs of mental health problems as they do in training troops for military activities. Chris Ford is the CEO of Stop Soldier Suicide. We don't train people to go to combat through PowerPoint presentations alone. There's hands on exercises , experiences. Can we invest more hands on practicum and training and recurring the training to routinized and reinforce those skills. In.
S5: In.
S6: Front line supervisors ? Fort Leonard Wood leaders say they are committed to long term efforts to continue to address mental health and reduce instances of suicide prevention. Manager Nimitz says their entire leadership team reviews every suicide attempt on base.
S7:
S6: But human nature and the power of psychological problems will make it hard to prevent all suicides. But she does report an increase in soldiers and their families reaching out and seeking help in the past year. I'm Jonathan All in Rolla , Missouri.
S1: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide , you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at one 800 2738255. Or you can reach out to the crisis text line to speak with a trained listener. Text the word hello to 741741. This is KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen CAVANAUGH. Jane Heineman is away today. Neptune Frost is an Afro futurist , sci fi musical , but that only scratches the surface of this richly layered film. The film has been making the festival rounds , but is playing exclusively at digital gym cinema in East Village through Thursday. KPBS arts reporter Beth ACCOMANDO speaks with the filmmakers American poet Saul Williams and Rwandan filmmaker Anisha Ousmane.
S4: Well , first of all , I want to thank you for this movie because I watched it during Sundance and it's always so wonderful to see a film that kind of makes you see cinema with new eyes. And it was just magnificent. But the problem with that is it's very hard to describe for other people. So I'm just wondering how each of you would describe Neptune Frost.
S5: Neptune Frost is a love story. It's a story of two people who meet in a dream before they meet in real life. One of these people is a coltan miner , and one of these people is a runaway. And the story tells the story of how each of them steps in to their power when they encounter a mysterious force that brings out , I'd say , the best in them. That's very vague , but that is also the truth. But in terms of genre , it's a science fiction musical that has been shot in Rwanda with an entirely Rwandan and Burundian cast and crew.
S8: Once upon a time , kind of the excellent Once Upon a Time , kind of the color written on the horizon theater. John is a movie , so.
S2: We follow the journey.
S4: Of many. People.
S2: People. It's a layered story where you follow the journey of those people towards a magical place where they feel safe and because they feel safe , step into their own power.
S5: The rest is bone from there. It's a coming of age story.
S4: Now , not everyone is familiar with Afrofuturism , although they may think they are after Black Panther.
S5: On the other hand , I would say that an easy anni in conceptualizing this project never thought in terms of all we want to make an afro futurist project or what have you. We are fans of science fiction. As.
S2: As.
S5: Of some rather Octavia Butler.
S2: Comics , comic books. Yeah , and all of those things. But yeah , it is. I think it's more so a term that helps people situating the film. The film is really more a science fiction and a musical , which is already something , you know. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. And I think it's in our approach , we're also peeling back sort of the typical approach to science fiction. I say typical because many may not think of it in this way , but I have my entire experience , for example , with , say , the Star Wars series has been in acknowledging that , like , I find it strange that when white people imagine this realm of higher intelligence in space , the main fear seems to be centered around the idea that some alien is going to come and colonize and or enslave them , and that it seems more like a projection of like will the things that are stirred up , played a role and come back and haunt us one day , then an actual liberation of the imagination. And so we approach some of these questions in Neptune Frost. Neptune Frost takes place in a village that is called Digital Area , and it's a village that we actually built. You know , it's part of our production design to make this film. It's a village made of recycled computer parts , beautiful githongo novel that we're eating. We are neemuch on the body , butI tonic amnesia. And I started conceptualizing this film around the time that we learned about the phenomenon of e-waste camps , which are places where our tech goes to die when you turn in that old iPhone or laptop or what have you. There are village sized camps , many of them on the continent of Africa , where you'll see piles of mother. Boards , piles of keyboard , piles of towers for scavenger culture that could come in and bring out , you know , take out the gold or the copper or the titanium and recycle or what have you. And then there's movements. And so our story tells the tale tells the story of a miner. We follow a particular miner out of the mines and into this this dreamlike encounter with our other protagonist , Neptune. But it is a question surrounding technology. It's a question surrounding the modern or the irony surrounding the fact that so much of our relationship to technology and the digital age is still so heavily based on a very analogue form of exploitation. It's also connecting the ancient technology , like the Drum , which was a wireless form of communication transmitted through coding , which is drum patterns , right to the modern forms of coding and wireless communication. We aim to make those connections in the film.
S2: Yeah , it is a way of saying we are present in every layer of time , every layer of time or presence is felt. Our presence is powerful.
S5: And in fact we are the technology.
S4:
S2: The reality of the mining situation in the region is , you know , real. I think there is a lot of things that are very real in the film , but that that are just exposed from our point of view , which is not sensationalized and not , you know , it's not a documentary at all. Yeah.
S5: I think the main thing , which is not particular to Rwanda or Burundi , is more particular to the state of the world , is that I don't think the Western world is fully aware of what their technology relies on and what it has always relied on. I don't think that the West and it's not just technology. Right. You know , it's it's all of the things that we take for granted that we never question , you know , or just at the beginning of questioning , you know , how they arrived here. And so to see a story that is celebrating black skin and black joy , while also , you know , dancing through our relationship to technology and bringing , you know , showing this sense of power that our characters are stepping into , I think can be a divine illumination for any Western viewer. But it's not about Rwanda , and it's not about Burgundy. It is about the viewer.
S2: And it is a way to invite everybody to acknowledge that.
S5: And to see us perhaps more closely aligned with how we see ourselves.
S4: Thank you very much for talking about Neptune Frost.
S5: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
S1: That was Beth ACCOMANDO speaking with co-directors Saul Williams and Amnesia oozy man Neptune Frost screens through Thursday at Digital Gym Cinema at UC San Diego's new park and Market Building.