PORTLAND, Ore. – One of the first things that Walter Thompson-Hernández did when he started playing professional basketball was buy a notebook and a digital camera. He was at the beginning of a professional journey that would take him across Latin America, and while he was there to play basketball, he realized quickly that his basketball career wasn't his long-term goal.
Sure, he had his NBA dreams, like any kid who grows up playing basketball that gets the opportunity to play Division I hoops. But it was during his time in Mexico that he realized that the NBA probably wasn't calling, and that was fine. By documenting everything that was happening during that time, he was laying the groundwork for what the next chapter of his life would be; that of a storyteller and a listener.
"I would take photos and ask people questions and I would write about what I was feeling," Thompson-Hernández said. "I think I began to realize it then… there's a whole world outside of basketball."
Exploring that world outside of basketball has proved quite fruitful for the former Pilot. He recently
screened at the University of Portland his short film
"If I Go Will They Miss Me", which won the
Sundance Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction. He wrote an award-winning book called
"The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland" about a group of Thompson-Hernández's friends who used horseback riding as a way to combat the negative stereotypes of African-Americans who live in Compton. He's worked for the New York Times, directed commercials and short videos and is continuing a foray into feature film making. Thompson-Hernandez continues to evolve his style, but one thing remains consistent: His passion for telling people's stories.
When Thompson-Hernández first got to the University of Portland, he admits there was a bit of culture shock. The strange world of the Pacific Northwest is a far cry from Southeast L.A. But Thompson-Hernández managed to find people with whom he connected with.
"I was really lucky there," Thompson-Hernández said about finding people to connect with. "But it was a culture shock. The Bluff is not Los Angeles by any stretch."
Thompson-Hernández came to play and basketball, suiting up for the Pilots from 2006-08. He has plenty of fond memories of his time here. Leading Gonzaga at halftime back in 2008 and handing them their largest deficit in WCC play at the time stands out, especially since it was a nationally-televised game. But Thompson-Hernández says it's not really the on-the-court memories that stand out from his time at UP. It's the memories off the court, getting the chance to meet new people and learn.
"There are a lot of really beautiful, impressive people there," Thompson-Hernández said. "It almost feels like a bubble, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There's something special about that."
The impact of people and things happening off the court laid the groundwork for his future. He's given a Ted talk on growing up half-black, half-Mexican and the future of multicultural identity, directed commercials for the Olympics and, arguably most notably, written for the New York Times. From articles about
Oaxacan rappers and the
Albino Community in Ghana to love-letters to his hometown of Los Angeles – he also has a podcast called
"California Love" about the lifeblood of Los Angeles told through his point of view and what it means to love it – Thompson-Hernández tells stories about communities that are often overlooked or portrayed stereotypically.
The story of the Compton Cowboys fits that mold. The popularity of the Compton Cowboys even after his
initial article back in 2018 has only grown. Prentice Penny, a writer for the HBO show Insecure, was set to write a feature film about it. Jordan Peele's most recent film, NOPE, saw lead actor
Daniel Kaluuya work with Randy Savvy, co-founder of the Compton Cowboys, and
Kaluuya also collaborated with designer Jide Osifeso on a limited-edition capsule where each purchase went directly to the Compton Cowboys' Jr. Equestrians program.
Burberry also recently released another fashion line based on the Compton Cowboys.
The impact the cowboys have had on society is undeniable, and Thompson-Hernández certainly played a role in their popularity. But he would never give himself that kind of credit. For Thompson Hernández, he was merely doing what he loves to do: tell a story.
"I feel like there's no ownership there," Thompson-Hernández said. "I was really fortunate that they allowed me to spend time with them and to learn about them… that's helped all of us in different ways and I'm very grateful."
He pulls off something similar with his latest work. "If I Go Will They Miss Me" is a story about Lil' Ant, a young boy in Los Angeles who starts seeing imaginary airplane people around his home and is obsessed with the Pegasus of ancient Greek mythology. The film is based on a true story about
Delta Flight 89, which on January 14 in 2020 dumped jet fuel on children in schools across southeast Los Angeles.
Thompson-Hernández was frustrated when he first read the story about the Delta fuel dump. That something like this happened in communities like the one he grew up in was a travesty, and he felt a need to tell the community's story. At this point he was already transitioning from reporting to other mediums of storytelling, and it felt like a natural fit to try filmmaking.
But it wasn't just anger that he felt, and that needed to come across in anything he made. For Thompson-Hernández, it was crucial that the story didn't come from a place of hatred. He grew up watching planes fly over his neighborhood and would concoct stories about where they were going and where they'd been. Those same planes weren't always harming his community; sometimes they brought people great joy. He aimed to put in harmony those contrasting ideas of harm and love with this film.
"I started to really think about all the experiences I've had with the flight path, which haven't all been harmful, haven't all been violence and danger," Thompson-Hernández said. "Some of them have been really beautiful, about love, connection and community."
The challenge became finding the right language to display that complexity. What comes from it is what Thompson-Hernández describes as a semi-autobiographical meditation on existing in a world outside of one's own. The film has a realist feel, with the lead actors being Anthony Harris Sr. and Anthony Harris Jr., the real-life Big Ant and Lil' Ant. Harris Sr. is a friend of Thompson-Hernández and is also one of the Compton Cowboys profiled in Thompson-Hernández's book. A duo like the Ants had to be the focus.
"When I was thinking about who should play Big Ant and Lil' Ant, it was almost a no-brainer," Thompson-Hernández said. "There's a certain trust and they're really excited about the project."
Thompson-Hernández could've made the film a documentary, but he wanted it to have the power of narrative, to capture something in the moment as opposed to after the fact. There was no script, with Thompson-Hernandez giving his actors guidelines for what he wanted and having them work from there.
"I wanted it to be like a visual moment," Thompson-Hernández said. "For me, it was just an exciting moment to be able to help tell this story in a way that, again, is fictional, but… I'm essentially asking people to play versions of their lives on screen. We wanted to make it feel like it was as honest as a documentary."
The result is a story that extols the value of a vivid imagination and transporting oneself into different worlds, but is ultimately grounded in reality and acknowledges that pain. It's a nuanced approach that harkens back to his time as a journalist.
"The work I'm doing now in the fictional space and in the narrative space has increased in the past year, but almost all of it is really informed by my approach to life and to storytelling in general," Thompson-Hernández said. "I don't really do documentaries, right? But the fictional work that I do feels so honest and so authentic and it feels so raw because I'm approaching it as a documentary."
Stories like those of Big Ant and Lil' Ant are precisely the ones that he wants to continue telling, doing so with his own unique style. There are plenty more stories to tell. Thompson-Hernández is currently working on a film based in Brazil and is also working on a memoir that he hopes to submit this year.
Thompson-Hernández always tells stories that are personal. Lil' Ant was just like him, staring at the sky and seeing airplanes go by, piquing his curiosity, prompting the creation of stories in his head. That curiosity stayed with him as a basketball player at UP, a pro player in Mexico and other Latin-American countries, then back to L.A. and to now, as a filmmaker.
"I just think of everything as like I'm a student," Thompson-Hernández said. "At the end of the day I'm always just learning, getting all these really cool experiences that I've been able to see along the way."