I'm Free, Now You Are Free

- [Mike] What's happening, bro.

- [Man] What's up?

You ever heard of the MOVE organization?

- [Man] Move?

- [Mike] The MOVE organization?

My family used to live here.

- [Man] Yeah, yeah.

- [Mike] You remember Rizzo?

- [Man] Yeah.

- [Mike] And an attack on MOVE in 1978.

- [Man] I wasn't living in Philadelphia.

(Inaudible) - [Mike] So this is where the house was.

This is where all the police were.

They were around, they were everywhere and they was on top of that building there.

And they were in the grass over here.

And this is where the side windows to the house were.

And they were shooting and aiming inside of the house with the bullets.

Yeah.

12 adults.

And a bunch of kids were inside the house.

My mom was pregnant with me.

She was inside the house too.

So, my dad was in there too.

But when, when the when the whole thing went down and all of the shooting a cop got killed and of course they blamed it on us.

So nine people went to prison, nine members, MOVE members and they spent at least 40 years each in prison they just, they just started getting out last year.

Yeah.

So my mom and my dad, they both did 40 years in prison.

My mom just got out last June.

My dad just got out last October.

(film rolling) - [Mike] I was born in a jail cell.

My mom couldn't take me home.

I had to bring her home When mom first came home, her and I used to talk for hours every day.

One time she was in her room and I knocked on her door and she, she said, come in.

And I went in and I, and I looked I looked down on the floor.

She was barefoot.

Right.

And I saw her feet and I realized that's the first time I ever saw her feet before When I was looking at her feet it was kind of like the first time I remember seeing her it was like, it matched, it matched with the image that if I had one that would've, would've been.

I talked to my friend Bobby and he said, wow you are learning at 40 years old what babies learn about their mothers.

- [Debbie] Oh my God.

He was so cute.

He was a really golden olive brown skin, like color.

He had lots of hair.

It was like slick on his head.

Once I wiped him off, his hair would curl up a little bit.

I just wanted to keep holding him and keep and keep I wanted to keep him, you know, I did want to keep him.

And then I had worries about, you know, you know who's gonna feed him and you know, all that stuff.

Now that then this stuff started going more through my head after I had him, like, are they gonna care for him like I would?

And you know, even though I know I had to give him to my mother, you know I think tears was just streaming down my face.

And I just, you know, almost at that point, I almost just but I had to hold myself together.

I said, he's gonna be alright.

He's gonna be alright.

He's gonna be alright.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But physically very, very begrudgingly gave him to her, you know and just saying that I gave him to her was just so hard.

Like those words.

And every time I relive this I just go through the same thing.

It never settles with me.

It never feels like I'm going to get over this.

- [Debbie] úWe weren't free to go and come as we wanted to, this was a, this was an ongoing harassment by the city of Philadelphia's police.

This was like a continuation of being stopped by cops on the street and taken into back alleys you know, beating people, you know, women suffered, I mean miscarriages at the hands of cops, babies being dangled you know, by the legs over a banister post because they wanted to evict somebody.

I thought it was necessary.

I thought it was necessary to to fight for my home, to fight for my freedom actually.

I didn't think that they was gonna attack the house, but they did.

That guilt is still there because I'm supposed to be their protector.

I'm supposed to be their, you know, their mother.

I wasn't there when they were hurt.

I wasn't there, you know, when they needed me.

- (Aaliyah) Dad, let me get Nabu first.

- Can you do me a favor, Lemur?

- Yeah.

- Can you run down upstairs and get my flashlight upstairs?

It's on my night table, maybe in my backpack.

- [Aaliyah] Yeah.

- Real quick.

What are you doing, cat?

(inaudible) Aaliyah?

- (Aaliyah) Yeah.

- Today.

- [Aaliyah] What?

- Today?

Today, today, did you find it?

- [Aaliyah] No.

- Did you really not?

(cellphone rings) You didn't find it?

- Hello?

You all tangled up.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, can I see these?

Here.

- [Mike] I'll tell you when I felt angry.

I felt angry when she tried to tell me something that I didn't need her to tell me.

"This is how you do this, Michael.

I don't want you to do it like this."

You know, those days are gone, long gone.

I'm good.

Because you haven't been here to teach me anything about this.

So now that I'm figuring, I figured it out on my own.

I don't need you to try to change what I'm doing.

Cuz it works for me.

I did this on my own.

(Mike whistling) I used to call myself the back burner kid.

Everything else was always more priority.

Everything else.

- [Debbie] You know, I never ever ever wanted that for you or you know your sister but the reality is is, you know, it was there, but you know and I'm sorry for, you know, any grief or pain or whatever misery he had to go through behind me not being there.

- [Debbie] No I wasn't on Alex's team, no I was on Alex's team.

They did win.

He said "Oh grandma was a goalie, grandma was a good goalie, how come I haven't gotten that from her?"

(Debbie laughing) You remember that?

- Uh, no.

- [Debbie] No, you wasn't there.

You wasn't there.

(inaudible) - [Mike] Kick it to me.

- No, I don't.

I don't want to.

- Kick it to me.

- No - Kick it to me.

- No.

- [Mike] I think the one thing I had to learn - Kick it.

- [Mike] I didn't learn until I was a parent myself.

- To me, to me, to me.

- [Mike] I thought that because you are my parents that that meant that you're incapable almost of making mistakes that would cause me pain.

- [Debbie] Yeah.

- [Mike] Learning that that is not true took a long time.

- One, two, three.

One, two, three, one.

All right, do it with me, come one.

Okay.

What's another one?

Oh see, you always do it real fast.

- [Mike] Today Aaliyah.

Today.

- Say "okay, we'll be there.

We'll be there".

- Today.

- Today.

- Today.

- Today.

- Today.

- No.

- All right.

What we gonna start off from first?

Let me see.

No, she gonna show off, watch.

- No, I'm not.

- Yeah, you are.

(Debbie and Aaliyah laughing) - Okay.

- See, I said she's gonna show off on me.

Keep showing off, keep going.

(Debbie laughing) - OK. (Debbie laughing) Don't expect me to do that.

- [Mike] Stay still, stay still, where are you?

I can't see you, what's going on?

(Debbie laughing) - [Mike] Stay still, will you?

- No.

- [Mike] You gonna fall.

- [Debbie] No, he's too heavy.

(Debbie laughing and yelling) - [Mike] Ready?

Go up.

- [Aaliyah] Yeah.

- [Mike offscreen] You told me this thing when you were, when you got out the day that we picked you up and you said, you're free now and I want you to do everything you want to do.

You don't have to hold yourself back.

You said, I want you to fly baby.

(Debbie chuckles) - You remember that?

- Mhmm.

- And the thing that I took from that you just got outta prison.

You didn't say I'm free now I can do whatever I want.

You said I'm free now, you are free.

(Soul music playing) - Hey, how are you, how you doing?

I'm good, how you feel?

- [Woman] Pretty good.

Waiting for you to perform tonight.

- Oh really?

That's a pleasure.

Hey, how you doing?

- [Woman 2] (inaudible) - No doubt.

We on the move.

(Soul music continues) - [Mike] All right, and go to that white one.

Just tap it.

No?

- [Woman 3] We are in a political moment where we have brought several of our lockdown, revolutionaries home and we are going to fight until we bring Mumia home too.

In the words of Mumia Abu-Jamal "every single incarcerated person is a political prisoner".

(crowd clapping) - [Woman 4] Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, free all political prisoners bring them all home.

- [Mike] Bring them all, bring them all home.

- That was Lorraine's house.

Miss Lorraine.

That's ungie house.

(kids yelling) Oh, that's the Campbell's house.

Wow.

That was Eugene and the ungie and them.

Wow.

- [Woman Offscreen] All right.

I'm going to read off here the names of the fallen warriors.

George Jackson, Geronimo Pratt, Afeni Shakur, Tom Manning, John Africa, Raymond Africa, Frank Africa, Rhonda Africa, Theresa Africa, Conrad Africa, Delicia Africa, Netta Africa, Katricia Africa, Tomaso Africa, Little Phil Africa, Merle Africa, Phil Africa, Lynne Stewart, Herman Wallace, Yogi Pinel, Safiya Bukhari, Koasi Belagun, Mondo we Langa, Malcolm X, Yuri Kochiyama, Grace Lee, Troy Davis, Leslie Feinberg, Bobby Sands, Marilyn Buck, Albert Norwashington, Dr. Alan Berkman, John Chaney, Loetha McGruder.

(birds chirping) (car horn honks) (man yelling) (people talking) (car engine roars)