About the film

University student Zayd Atkinson was cleaning up the grounds of his dorm— duties of his work-study job— when he was threatened by eight police officers with guns drawn. He lived to tell the story that many Black men have not survived. As the body-cam footage of this encounter went viral, Atkinson's story sparked a reckoning for one town as the implicit biases of its institutions and the continuation of its broader history were laid bare.

This Is [Not] Who We Are explores the gap between Boulder, Colorado's progressive self-image and the lived experiences of its small but resilient Black community. Boulder is emblematic of predominantly white communities that profess an inclusive ethic but live in a segregated reality. The film explores the intersecting issues of land use, affordability, racial and class-based segregation, youth issues, education, and policing, which together reveal deeply entrenched, often un-intended, structural inequalities that have reverberated through generations.