The Cycle: A Short Film

Much is argued about the perils of gentrification, when the lines are drawn clearly across race.

However, much less is said about the perils of gentrification, when the lines are drawn within the same racial group, across class.

In “The Cycle,” the push and pull between the native residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant and a growing group of middle-class blacks becomes the subject of a short film.

The film’s writer and director, Roy Clovis, employs the precision of a surgeon in his telling of the story, with an exactness that cuts straight to the problems of intra-racial gentrification.

“The Cycle” is produced by Mundo Loco Films. It was one of five finalists at the American Black Film Festival and showed this month during BAM’s Black Film Festival. It won “Best Narrative Short” at the Roxbury International Film Festival, “Best Short Film” at the Central Florida Film Festival, “Screenplay Award” at the Colorado Film Festival and “Best Drama” at the Indie Producer Short Film Festival.

Perhaps, a big reason the story resonates so well with audiences is because it is based off of a true story. Clovis was living in Bed-Stuy, attending a Superbowl party when he overheard the story of a man’s daughter who owned a vintage pink bike. The man's wife also was the owner of Brownstone Books on Lewis Avenue – a part of a vibrant new group of black business owners in Bed-Stuy.

In the story, an unspoken tension between the new, upwardly mobile group of black residents and the poorer community of blacks came to a head when the man's daughter’s bike was stolen from in front of his wife’s bookstore.

Things got even uglier when his wife called the police, turning a seemingly small incident into an all-out “hunt,” where the new blacks aligned with the cops against the bad-guy-perpetrator-thug, which – consequently, since he was unidentified – ended up, the entire “old-Bed-Stuy” community.

In the end, the bike was recovered without police intervention. And what could have been a violent clash between social classes, ended up a learning opportunity for both “victim” and “perpetrator” (who’s who, depending upon how you look at it).

Is it wrong for middle-class blacks to want better for their own children, their own community? Or have educated, middle-class blacks grown so far away from the ‘hood, they can no longer sympathize with the issues that plague the ones who are still struggling?

Clovis re-tells the entire story in "The Cycle," bringing to life so much of what is unspoken about gentrification within like racial groups -- issues surrounding money, power and respect.

Patch interviewed one of the film’s producers, Ivy Grant, who gave us further insight into the making of “The Cycle.”

Q: What was Roy Clovis trying to say, when he decided to make this short film?

A: He felt there was a divide that was taking place in the community, and not just black and white and it was a class issue.

But he wanted to tell the story also, because he thought it was interesting when he heard the story and found out that the daughter got the bike back. Typically, these type of stories don’t end well. He wanted to show that it was hopeful. The idea that there were clashing forces, but at the end of the day she got the bike back, no one was arrested, and there was no shooting was important.

Q: What was your opinion of the script?

A: I loved the script immediately when I read it. It’s inspired by these real events. Something that seems so small ended up being very explosive in the neighborhood. Brownstone books closed down. So the movie becomes an interesting scrapbook of a time that does not exist anymore. At that time it happened, the little girl was 6. The daughter in the movie is the actual person who plays herself. We kept the names of everyone in the movie. “Black Power” is a real person in the neighborhood. She really does represent an interesting bridge between two communities. She’s active in the political scene, in the church, she’s a galvanizing force.

Q: Do you feel that perhaps they made a big deal out of a bike, when there are certainly much bigger issues to contend within, even between the same race groups?

A: It’s not so much about the bike as it is about what it represents. But even still, usually there’s a very visceral reaction to this idea that your bike is being stolen. When I was a kid, my bike was like the first thing I ever owned. It represented freedom. And it was a way you can be out of your parent’s reach and have some level of independence. And to have the one biggest thing that you’ve ever owned at that point in your life taken from you... In the movie, the kid who stole the bike said, “When my bike was stolen, no one ever went looking for it for me.” The father said, “Yeah, but don’t you wish they had?” And so it clicks to the boy that because he was victimized, it doesn’t mean that he has the right to take from someone else.

Q: Do you consider yourself a gentrifier?

A: I consider myself a gentrifier, absolutely. I live on 125th Avenue in Harlem, in a neighborhood that also is changing rapidly. But at the same time, I live across the street from a Methadone clinic. But I think that even in the 3 years that I’ve lived there, it has definitely changed.

Q: Did you learn anything new about intra-racial gentrification or about yourself in the making of this movie?

A: In neighborhoods that have grown up together, gone through hardships together, and have dealt with outside forces, it becomes an “us against them” mentality. And so one of the biggest things that define a community is how it deals with conflict. Do you call in an outside force, like the police, when there’s a problem? We tried to explore some of the issues that we have about the mistrust of the police in general. Because, one of the things you see in the movie, the police are supposed to help. But when they arrive, you see that even they’re not actually there with the best of intentions.

When that small exchange happens at the end, and Kem, the father displays that he’s not afraid to talk to kids on the street, it shows the importance of learning how to handle things within our own communities. And just because something horrible has happened to you in the past, you don’t need to act that out on yourself.

Currently, "The Cycle" is showing on HBO on Demand during Black History Month, through the end of February. For more information on “The Cycle,” visit the movie’s website. (see movie trailer attached)

If you would like to read more stories on the subject of intra-racial gentrification, check out Patch columnist Sylvia Harvey’s column “Change for Dollar,” where she explores the topic in the story, “”