Two local filmmakers in Brooklyn joined forces to create a short film examining social injustice and racial inequality.

Filmmakers Coffey and Samuel K. Rhind have been friends for years, but the two put pen to paper when Coffey's son made a chilling statement to his father.

“[He said] Dad, me and my friends are making sure we get home before dark, so we won’t get killed by the cops...and as a dad, that’s the first time I didn’t have an answer,” says Coffey.

He says t was a troubling reality to hear his son say those words, ultimately leading the pair to write the short film, “About the People.”

“It really answers the questions of how do we stop? Or what is like a real plan, so we can come out on the other side of injustice better? More together and be in a place where it doesn’t happen anymore,” says Rhind.

Solutions, they say many people of color are still looking for today, shedding light on a issue that may have been blurred.

“It’s changing people’s visions that didn’t understand where we were coming from as a people, way before we were born. And that’s what it was all about,” says Coffey.

The film shot in New York City, drawing familiar faces from Diggy Simmons to Michael K. Williams.

“All of these actors had something to say. And being casted in this film is their way of saying look, we see the problem, we see what’s going on,” says Coffey.

The short film was written in 2016, filmed in 2018 and premiered just last year.

“Going through the climate we are standing in today, in this short film About the People, was written to try to prevent what we are actually going through now,” says Coffee.