‘Every Mother’s Son’ filmmaker Tami Gold in Bayview!

‘Every Mother’s Son’ filmmaker Tami Gold in Bayview!

by mesha Monge-Irizarry
From left, Iris Baez, Kadiatou Diallo and Doris Busch Boskey with pictures of their sons

On June 7, Tami Gold, co-producer of the nationally acclaimed film “Every Mother’s Son,” came to the Idriss Stelley Foundation on Third Street in Bayview to touch base and exchange ideas on how to impact police brutality nationwide.

The film has just been nominated for an Emmy Award in the Best Director category. “This is the highest award in television, so it should bring some more visibility to this issue,” she told me in an email last week. “If we win, we sure will say something in our acceptance speech!”

According to a New Day Film publication, “In the late 1990s, three victims of NYPD made headlines around the country: Amadou Diallo, the young West African man whose killing sparked intense public protest; Anthony Baez, killed in an illegal choke-hold; and Gary (Gidone) Busch, a Hasidic Jew shot and killed outside his Brooklyn home.” “Every Mother’s Son” tells of the victims’ three mothers, who came together to demand justice and accountability.

Iris Baez, the mother of Anthony Baez, is out there campaigning, imploring, reaching out to others in her desire to change the system. While she can’t bring back her beloved son, she wants to make the police accountable for their actions.

Soft-spoken Kadiatou Diallo, mother of Amadou Diallo, often wearing the colorful patterned dresses and matching turbans of her native land, was thrust into unaccustomed limelight as the much-publicized Diallo case topped broadcasts and made front-page news. Her book “My Heart Will Cross This Ocean“ is breathtaking.

Descended from West African kings and healers, raised in the turbulence of Guinea in the 1960s, Kadiatou Diallo was married off at the age of 13 and bore her first child when she was 16. Twenty-three years later, her son, a gentle, innocent young man named Amadou Diallo, was gunned down without cause on the streets of New York City. Kadi Diallo tells the astonishing, inspiring story of her life, her loss and the defiant strength she has always found within.

Less well-known is Doris Busch Boskey, mother of Gary Gidone Busch. In her dark, impeccably tailored blazer and turtleneck sweater or white blouse, she looks like the lawyer each of these women has, in essence, become”.

Tami Gold steps into Idriss Stelley Foundation office, and suddenly the room feels more luminous. She exudes vibrant energy and passion in her sunny outfit, swirling as she looks at our pamphlets and altar and marvels at the organic garden at the back of the building.

“Tami, who is the co-producer of ‘Every Mother’s Son’?”

“My friend Kelly Anderson.”

“What made you decide to produce ‘Every Mother’s Son’?”

“We took to the streets for answers after the murder of Gary Busch in ’99. Mothers – Black mothers especially – would tell us: ‘This could happen to anyone’s son!’ The whole city of New York was polarized around mothers carrying badges with their dead child’s picture. Big buttons.

“The three mothers we featured in our film remain very close. Iris is a power house! No selfish interest, just a passion to get the word out. She has a big extended family, a house husband who take care of the kids, very grounded. Doris is now in her 70s. Kadiatou just had triplet grand kids. She lives in Maryland.”

“911 has diffused policing issues in New York. Doris’ case is at closing point. The cops were not indicted; she lost her civil case. She is getting no support from her Hasidic Jewish community, who have a false sense of privileged safety with NYPD. When Iris’ case went to trial, the officer who killed her son was sentenced to seven years in prison. With the settlement money, she started the Baez Foundation. NYPD sued her for the cost of the trial!”

“What is the general sentiment of the New York community about the police?”

“The feeling is: Don’t bring cops to the house! Our film is shown on TV all over the country. We conduct national tours to universities. At the grassroots level, we need to re-galvanize the anti-police brutality movement. We are doing fundraising proposals with OSI, Ford and the Rockefeller Foundations, although it is tricky since we have to comply with a ‘loyalty oath’ to our government ... that has to be signed by all grantees.”

“What’s in store?”

“NYPD Blues, Bitch Fest, companion films; in July we are going to travel all over the country.”

“I am very disappointed by my Jewish community, and I am Jewish, very Jewish. At a Jewish festival, they used me as an ‘inspirational speaker’ but did not let us show our film! Same lack of support from Jewish radio.”

“Who do you feel is the most at risk with the police?”

“People classified as mentally disturbed. Like Arlene Kelly – she called the police because she was having an anxiety attack, refused to be taken to psych emergency. She ran past the officers, and they shot her in the back!

“They just have to prove they do the work to justify their paycheck. Stop, arrest, be on the lookout. Busting young people of color is potential proof! They have to put in overtime to be able to live, get a promotion.”

“Tami, what drives you to continue doing this work?”

“I always believed in it, and now, more than ever, is time to really make a difference as a revolutionary. But I get no sustenance from my Jewish community. I get phone calls from folks who resent that Puerto Ricans, Blacks and Jews are paralleled in ‘Every Mother’s Son,’ Jewish callers stating that the police are just doing their work; there is no assassination.

“We need to challenge racism in the Jewish community. Jews have been pigeonholed into being perceived as White and privileged. We need to be vigilantly antiracist in everything we do, especially if we are Jewish. It does not matter if we were oppressed, if we turn around to be the oppressor. Oppression does not make anyone superior.”

Tami is off for Oakland for another screening. Every time I attend a community event featuring “Every Mother’s Son,” as a grieving mother/panelist, I promise myself I will not cry THIS time – until Kadiatou on the screen collapses in front of the Brooklyn building where her son was murdered by the NYPD, sobbing endlessly, “Why? Why? Why?” and I have to leave to regain composure.

For us mothers, it is still, forever, as if it happened yesterday. Well intentioned, caring friends try to soothe our pain by stating that it will get better with time. Unconsciously, they actually attempt to soothe their discomfort with our never-ending pain.

It still takes me long seconds every morning upon awakening to realize Idriss is dead, forever. It still wrenches my mother’s heart when the Idriss Stelley Foundation receives a crisis call due to a new modern lynching.

Shattered dreams and hopes, agonizing grief, indifference and scorn from the authorities bond the grieving moms together, but more, the passion to bring our efforts to protect our children, your children, always.