“I kind of became a documentary filmmaker by accident,” said Cami Thomas. “I felt like this was the best way to tell this particular story – and that’s the way it happened.”
She’s two seasons into “Smoke City” – the web docuseries she created, produced and directed that is available for viewing on Thomas’ media network “For The Culture TV” FTCTV for short. The second season of “Smoke City” debuted this fall.
The show features Thomas talking with residents in different neighborhoods throughout the region –Chesterfield, U. City, Dogtown, Old North to Walnut Park, Ferguson and Thomas’ native Florissant among them –in an effort to shed light on the varying perspectives and realities that come with each respective community. Her goal with the series was to teach people about her city beyond the headlines that focused on the events on and after August 9, 2014.
When the Ferguson unrest hit the region in response to the killing of Michael Brown, then college student Cami Thomas felt compelled to do something. Home from the summer from Loyola University in New Orleans, she only had a few days before it was time to head back to school.
When she moved back to St. Louis after completing her undergraduate degree, “the smoke has cleared” was the catch phrase that was often repeated when she wanted to talk about the sensitive subject of the unrest. She found the opposite to be true – which inspired the show’s title “Smoke City.”
“People I worked with would often say that,” Thomas said. “I would ask, ‘have you ever talked to anybody in North County?’ Usually the answer was no, they hadn’t. That’s the way St. Louisans are raised, to stay in their area.”
The assumption that everything was all good, but she felt like there was a lot of work left to be done, especially conversations across communities.
“The conditions that caused things to get explosive are still here,” Thomas said. “The tension was still there. People were still feeling oppressed and overpoliced.
It made me think, ‘What would make people think that the work is done? What would make people think, “We’re good now’… that people’s emotions have calmed down?”
Thomas felt compelled to respond creatively. Writing is her typical outlet, but she was driven to create a visual firsthand illustration of diving into communities outside of her own to tear down walls and build bridges.
“There seems like there’s this imaginary barrier that people are sort of afraid to cross and go into,” Thomas said. “They can’t see themselves in this neighborhood or that neighborhood, so I basically jumped in front of the camera – because I wanted to show myself in those neighborhoods.
I said, ‘This is going to keep happening until we act like we’re neighbors and introduce ourselves to each other.’”
The point of the series to introduce people to different neighborhoods, but the main takeaway was to say that the next step is to actually go out and do it themselves.
Growing up in Florissant, attending high school in Ladue (MICDS) with family sprinkled all over – from North City to Chesterfield – Thomas felt she had a pretty broad take on St. Louis.
Through “Smoke City” she learned she was wrong.
“Every time we went out with a camera, I got surprised with something or another,” Thomas said.
The “aha-moment” was written all over Thomas’ face during the episode exploring University City. Two residents, a black woman nearing middle age and a young white man, had experiences so different that it sounded as if they were describing upbringings in different states. He became even more keenly aware of his arbitrary privileges by suffering the trauma of learning the tragic fate of his black close friend and classmate – in an area known for diversity and inclusiveness.
“I assumed that my understanding of St. Louis was more comprehensive in that I didn’t have biases like other people,” Thomas said. “I found out that actually was incorrect – and that working against those assumptions has to be intentional, daily work.”
She hopes “Smoke City” will inspire St. Louisans to take it upon themselves to visit other areas to find out more about them – and talk to people to put forth building communities through understanding one another.
“I thought that me doing that throughout the episodes will show people, ‘Hey, it’s not that hard to go out,’” Thomas said. “That’s the best way to get out and get to know your neighbors.”
For more information on Smoke City, or to watch episodes from both seasons, visit https://www.ftctvofficial.com/smoke-city.
