Harlem's Jordan Walker-Pearlman Talks Legendary Uncle And More On The Danny Tisdale Show

blog talk radio hello folks how you doing it's danny tisdale welcome to harlem world magazine around the world around the block uh hollywood magazine is for anyone who has the harlem state of mind dedicated to news history the renaissance and stories that celebrate harlem lifestyle i'm danny tisdale and you're on the danny tisdale show and today we have a great guest jordan walker pearlman who was born in harlem a nephew of actor gene wilder he's raised funds for presidential candidate barack obama he is married to screenwriter elizabeth hunter he is perhaps best known for his film the visit for which he has nominated two independent spirit awards he worked with actors he has worked with actors hill harper billy d williams felicia rashad lynn redgrave i can go on and on but we want to speak to the man but before we speak to him recently he's written a topic piece in the los angeles times titled beyond hashtag oscar so white hollywood needs to confront historic racism on the big screen he is currently working on a film drum kisses uh also the jazz detective of strivers wrote let me say that again the jazz detective of cyber's row it's a series about the life of genius detective of a genius detective in harlem and uh jordan great to have you here with us how are you doing i'm blessed and very happy to be with you and very happy to be in harlem at least by voice fantastic we love to have you here and uh jordan you know part of the conversation comes out of a interview you did with one of our writers writers robert walker in the title of the piece was jordan walker pearlman the native son returns to harlem what was it like in what kind of memories do you have about growing up in harlem well i i don't remember a lot from when i was nine days old but i do remember i think the first memories and i don't know if this is unusual or not are smells uh i remember the smell of my grandmother's kitchen um i remember i remember yeah this particularly smothered chicken and red beans she was originally from louisiana i could go on oh really yeah i'm sorry go ahead right yeah no she's no i meant i could go on what what the smells remind me of but um yes originally from lukeville louisiana and then new orleans and then made her way to chicago and settled in harlem several years before i was born and i remember the smells of uh the cocoa butter that she put on my hands and then i after that my interesting memory is she had a thrift shop our church first cavalry baptist church she ran the thrift shop and this was the mid 70s in the late 70s when i was a little kid and the um the old timers would play big west or checkers we'd read the amsterdam news on saturdays that's kind of how i learned how to read i was reading the amsterdam news um those are my first memories that are that are memories that would be common to any experience of harvard i had i have some first memories that where i really realized what harlem was as a blood community at least for me but those were memories when i was a little wasn't by the time i was four or five it's amazing and you describe them uh as if they're pretty fresh in your memory which is quite amazing um and i have those same memories and uh you know it's not so much chicken but i used to live around the corner from this uh fried fish place and you know when you mention the smells that's what came to mind is you know the fried fish cooking and the lines of people you know outside and so what year do you um move from harlem or do you still live in harlem and bounce back and forth i bounce back and forth between new york and los angeles i don't currently when in new york live in harlem i we since i was born uh until my grandmother passed away in 2009 i certainly lived turning off in harlem thank you she made it to 97. um oh great and i and and i lived so i lived part of the time all those years and then i had my own places in harlem when i got married we moved a little further down riverside drive so sort of more on the border of harlem and morningside heights in the upper west side but beautiful i would like to i would i would yeah i would like but i would like to live in harlem again i have some fear psychological fears associated with it because so much has changed and i'm still attached very much to my experience and what what remains unchanged certainly so and i i'm really curious about uh you know some of what you're you're doing uh today i i know that you uh have become a director and first of all before i get into your um some of your new work uh the detective in harlem but what made you become a director as opposed to doing what your uncle did uh gene wilder as an actor why on the directing side well there are two versions of that story the most honest the most honest one i can give you is that i grew up in in different worlds with families from different experiences and races and and children didn't really really outside of harlem harlem was the only place i was always felt accepted and embraced and natural but otherwise you know i i didn't feel like i belonged in the world that was being forced upon me and so i guess at a very early age i used my imagination to create my own world and to a certain extent that's what a filmmaker does now my grandmother alleges or alleged that story is walking down the street story has it quite as it's kept we were walking down the street and she i had done something and she said jordan what am i going to do with you if you don't learn to act right and that my answer was i'll become a director director i love it well that that sounds like the uh the story to go with it is the more amusing of the two yeah i don't know if it's accuracy well and you know i uh you know always love your uncle's work and especially the producers which is my favorite favorite favorite movie um did he ever give you tips jordan on on you know working in the industry in hollywood or or any of that kind of thing you know this is what you should do or this is you know what you shouldn't do was there a thing like that or was he that kind of guy he his tips to me his concern with me you know he co-parented me and so his priority was always if i was going to pursue the life of an artist that i knew a what i was getting into but also b he was more concerned with my with my art and and and that my art would be closer to my heart and that i wouldn't i wouldn't try or or wish to do something disingenuous from that he he he became quite disillusioned with the business side of so-called children by the by the later in his career and and he had never felt he never would have said that's my first choice for you to do that on the one hand on the other hand he wanted me to be like him so he did he did encourage it at a very young age and i was i was with him as a three-year-old or four-year-old when he was writing young frankenstein that's wow that's the first memory of learning what writing was and how you could create characters and put them on the page so in that way he gave me a lot of tips just because i was a witness to so much of his creativity i i have to tell you jordan i am jealous because that sounds exciting i you know when i'm not publishing i'm an artist so to you know talk to you and you come from the artist's perspective uh you know i'm just sitting on the edge of my my chair here um and can you tell us a little bit uh uh jordan about what you're working on now the detective in harlem tell us a little bit about that that's so i'm i'm working i'm on post-production on a movie called the jazz griots which is a sort of a meditation on jazz and i was working on it with my longtime friend and collaborator wallace rony the trumpeter who tragically passed away unnecessarily in my opinion of covert 19 in march and i'm finishing that now um and then i'm about to start work on a movie called the requiem boogie in a month or two if the insurance companies let us film that's about a child mourning the loss of their parent the show that you're referring to is actually called drum kisses the jazz detective of striver's row and that's that's a tv show and that's actually a tv one of my first four ways into into television um and that is about a detective a brilliant world war one vet who's estranged from his family and who settles in harlem and uh lives over the generations it's really a way to explore this character but most importantly to me it's a way to explore the 109 history the last 109 years of harlem history and he used this character and his adventures in his journeys to shed a light on the history of harlem is very much about the renaissance and very much about music but it's so much larger than that and so it goes it goes throughout history from turn of the century to 2009. yeah you're right on with that uh jordan that the you know we started a harlem history page on facebook and we said you know periodically you know people will probably come to it and check it out and it's one of our busiest uh pages that we have on the site so this enormous history of harlem is uh really quite amazing and i'm really interested to see um the the detective in harlem series when it launches and and when can we see the first episode hopefully in about a year uh we're negotiating now so i can't say much more because we just got you i finished writing the the pilots and we're just now negotiating with companies and agents and all that but hopefully within a year and uh my my closest my closest friend the actor hill harper will play the lead we'll play the oh fantastic yeah we haven't seen him in a in a in a minute uh so it'd be great to see him again uh uh so that sounds uh great we'll look for it uh for uh what in a year or so so it sounds like jordan yeah you're working on multiple projects is that the way of the director or is that just the way that you work i actually work the opposite way for the last 20 years much the disagreeing with many many people ran closest to me but probably the great relief of some audiences i was only making one movie every few years and right as a writer director and it's only now um and then i had a couple years off when i was working to to raise money and be a campaign surrogate for president obama than senator obama but um i am now more going to be doing things more frequently because i launched with uh with my co-founder morris ruskin a company called mojo global arts to do more of my own work but also to finance and get off the ground the work of other artists particularly those artists that don't traditionally have the platform to have their voices heard or when they do it's it's given to them with some sense of confinement so more stuff coming than i normally have before it's an adjustment for me but a happy one and uh uh you know i'll get to that question let's see i i i'ma ask you the question now because uh we may not have time for it in the second half but you know i'm always you know curious about the process especially in speaking to artists um what what tips ideas uh for those directors jordan who may are let's say want to be directors who want to do the kind of work you're doing um what's um what tips would you have for them what would you suggest that they do you know if they're young and they they're just starting out and they want to you know follow in your footsteps as a director and have the kind of quote-unquote schedule that you have what any tips that you could give them for those who want to be the directors like you i think my three most important tips would be one exceed me do better than me second second don't let anyone else confine your voice trust your voice and the third i would say is write down your ideas because so many times young aspiring filmmakers have really important ideas and as soon as people start to clatter around them or tell them well you have to do it this way you have to do it that way they start to abandon those ideas and if you write down your ideas as soon as you have them you can go back to them and see how sound and how important they are to you because you know as soon as as soon as somebody says they want to be a filmmaker um especially if they're if they're growing up in in circumstances with economic challenges or systematic challenges the first thing they'll have is a lot of people to tell them how hard it is and i would i would say yeah every but doesn't mean you're not going to do it if you if you have an idea if you have an imagination if you feel it you're an artist you are i i love it and that is really great sound advice and uh jordan our listeners are listening into the danny tisdale show on harlem world magazine radio harlem where magazine is independently owned company so please hit the patreon button and become a patron i am speaking to jordan walker pearlman and uh we're still talking about harlem and directing in the movies you know jordan i wanted to to get right back to it here and ask you about the op-ed article you wrote hollywood needs to confront historic racism on the big screen uh why did you write that and what's been the response to it well i wrote it you know it's been a big part of my career and a big part of my mind and a lot of films that would otherwise be adorable classics or profound classics are ruined for me because of the racist imagery that's contained in them and it's not all just gone with the wind it's it's many films and i wrote it in response i along with a lot of people got a letter from tom hanks who's a swell person a gentleman but he was asking us to donate to the new museum for the academy of motion arts and sciences in l.a and i turned down membership in that organization 17 18 years ago because of their refusal to be more inclusive and i feel that those images constitute cultural violence i feel that those images are were used uh and used intentionally and you know all those artists of color that could have been great artists were denied access to hollywood and at the same time positive images were censored out of films and negative images right through to our present day were happily included and you know just seven months ago gone with the wind was re-released and they spent millions of dollars on marketing it and and put it in the theaters and it played on tcm no problem and so i just felt it was time for somebody a lot of people were saying it was time for me at least to write down exactly why i turned down membership in the academy and say this is cultural violence and and i i you cannot you cannot truly address systematic racism's history in this country unless you address the fact that it's not history and that it's still happening and it's happening quite powerfully now and a lot of people in hollywood you know the fire was 100 burning and they said it and they kept it alive for 100 years and now they're containing the fire by 94 93 things have gotten eight percent better and a lot of people are asking for badges and medals for it and i think it's important to understand that these these images do harm these images are intentional and that they have to be treated as an act of cultural violence and that's why i wrote the article yeah it's uh intentional that uh really kind of you know uh perked my ears up and uh quite a bit because you know you know we you know who wants to be around to understand to realize in some ways that we have a world where some people really have you know they're intentional in their racism and uh i think it's great that you know you are in some ways and you have uh with the letter you know put people in check it's like i'm looking at what you're doing i know what you've done and i'm going to talk about it with the world what has been the response to the letter george the the the response is you know it's a minor thing you know it was it was published as an op-ed in the la times so a lot of people read it and then they circulated it worldwide um so i certainly got my share of people saying great and i certainly got my share of hate mail um and that's fine i think the it alone did not do this but part of my article suggested that if the academy was serious instead of just talking about let's nominate you know this so-called inclusion film once every few years or this person or that person then if they're going to build a museum need to build a museum that acknowledges their history and complicity in systematic racism in america and how the most powerful the art that i love and have devoted my life to the most powerful art there is they used to reinforce images of cultural violence and to be complicit in systematic racism and they should have a permanent exhibition and this article came out in january or february february 2nd or 3rd and they sent me a letter three weeks ago saying that they were going to have this exhibition permanent exhibition um and that's good i'm not saying my article was the sole difference but that's that's good and they're reacting to the climate of the time and i hope that they follow through and actually do it and that's uh fantastic um and that you know i love when something like this happens because a lot of people say you know in the past in the present that you know change can't happen and that one person can't make change large or small or somewhere in the middle but you are making change uh and uh and even more importantly there are people who are listening i have a feeling what your answer might be but uh we are uh i guess we could say in the middle of uh protests let's say the i'm going to say the middle to the end can i say that of some protests obviously regarding um mr floyd uh and others miss taylor are you optimistic about our wonderful country and our future i said this uh in a short film i did the other day i'm old enough to be pessimistic and young enough to be hopeful um what what there's so much going on in the world and you know i just i have i have memories of things these types of moments happening before and then things settle down and people don't keep it keep it going i i hate the term race relations like uh there's some sort of equanimity and it's about both sides coming together and why can't we you know do this and and you know of all the pestilence and all the plagues going back to the old testament one of the easiest thing to end would be systematic racism in america if the mainstream white population simply said we are now going to rise to the minimum level of human recognition of all people and no longer and it wouldn't then you can address what what systematic historical things have to be addressed but to just simply stop would be a very easy thing to do and still even in the context of what's happening now in society there is still even built into the reaction to to the so-called protests are these these marginalizations of of the protesters and even of the of the blacks black lives matter movement this idea of well give a little let's compromise let's do this as if one side one side is advocating your foot off our neck let's just all recognize each other's humanity and our lives matter and the other side is saying well let's negotiate that and see how many more people die and see how many more tape recordings and video recordings and iphone recordings show to prove us that this actually exists and that that i'm hopeful because of the energy i see and i'm hopeful that there are enough people with voices that will that will keep demanding to be heard but i'm still cautious because i just don't understand it just continues to befuddle me why it's even a conversation yeah about as if as if two sides need to come together and sign a treaty when one side has has has committed the act for hundreds of years but that's so that's a long answer to your question but it's something that i grapple with every day trying to think about what the answer is yeah no and i i uh identify with that because i'm a little bit positive and a little bit of a pessimist um but at the end of the day i'm always an optimist uh but uh you know when it comes to you know others and the challenges that they have you know that's where you know my optimism is a little shaky because i know how humans you know i know how humans are and sometimes they don't get it they don't see what i see or feel what i feel so i certainly hear you and understand that you know and it can get shaky from exhaustion yeah because you know it's hard enough just to lead one life with all the joys and it is joyful in many ways all the joy all the challenges all the things that happen with one human life and then say okay you're going to lead one human life now you're going to give a third of your human life to fighting against a whole system that wants to limit your joy and freedom and challenge to live your human life and now you have to donate another third of your life to explaining it to everyone else as to why that's not fair and it can get exhausting and i think that's that's the only that thing can sometimes dampen our optimism just you just can get tired yeah and it certainly can be exhausting you know um uh just as as we said and and uh but i hope and i'm always an optimist that uh you know maybe if we talk maybe 10 or 20 years from now we can you know we may laugh at where we were and what we were doing to each other and you know 10 or 20 years from now uh you know we high five uh in person over the phone and you know can say that you know we nipped that in the bud i i you know wish that with all my being i wish it too i'll sign the i'll sign the prayer book on that i wish so too and as as long as there as long as there is love and as long as there you you know opportunities no one has to wait 30 years for their opportunity to do what organically they would be doing anyway then i think we can find we can find hope marching forward certainly so and especially um rather it's voting this november or creating your own advocacy campaign as artists or uh as a neighbor or as anyone who feels that it's important to bring voice to those who might be voiceless but uh jordan we're at that moment where we're almost at about the uh what 40 second mark and uh if you could i was just i know it started i know i know i could tell you're getting fired up over there and i am too um but this always happens uh jordan can you share with our audience uh how they can keep keep track with the work that you're doing and um what you speak of and about um i'm not great at social media but my my new company for you as a people who who work there that are smarter than me uh the website is mojo.filmmojo.film and that has a you know current projects updates press all that right jordan you know it's that moment and uh it's been great having you on the show and talking to you as i said i love talking to ours and especially uh harlem mites rather state of mind or in reality uh but but thank you for being on the show and look forward to speaking to you again someday hey thank you it's been a pleasure first cocktail at red roosters on me when they let us in okay you got it thanks george take care thank you you too bye and thank you listeners for listening in and listening to a great conversation that i enjoyed thank you bye-bye you