‘The People’s Way’ premieres in Midwest

After two sold out screenings – first at The Main and then at the Capri – “The People’s Way” film was given an encore screening among the “Best of the Fest” during its Midwest premiere at the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) in April 2025.
A feature-length documentary, the film follows three local Black women as they navigate and find their callings in the movement for racial justice and Black liberation following George Floyd’s murder in 2020: Toshira Garraway of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence; Jeanelle Austin of Rise & Remember; and Minneapolis City Council Member Robin Wonsley, who during the film is campaigning to represent Ward 2.
For many in the audience who have marched, held space and worked alongside these women, the film features many familiar faces and places, as well as moments both traumatic and triumphant. Viewers responded with finger snaps and applause – and at the Capri, loud cheers (and even some jeers when the mayor appears onscreen).
At its heart, the film offers an intimate look at three Black women who rise to meet this moment. They are shown in the public spotlight, as well as in quiet moments shared with their respective families. Their anguish, determination and drive is raw, tender and fierce.
Co-directors Ashley Tyner and Will Tyner, siblings from New York City, explained their decision to focus on these three individuals.
“We wanted to find Black women who were pushing things forward in really particular ways, and in different ways, as well. So I think that was a big motivation… Where is the momentum, where is the energy going? Robin had the energy going in grassroots civic engagement... Jeanelle had energy around preservation, memorialization. Toshira had energy around care for her community and for other impacted families,” said Will.
Ashley added, “Not to get too academic, we were thinking about Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s framing of abolition, this idea of ‘If we have a system we don’t like and we want to tear it down, what do we put in its place?’ So this question of who is putting something new in its place was what we wanted to look at. And then these three women really showed us that.”
Ashley and Will first came to Minneapolis in July 2020 and were drawn to stories unfolding at George Floyd Square. They met Austin and saw the work being done to preserve the memorial, as well as the ongoing occupation. It quickly became clear that they needed to stop filming and just be present.
“I think we were so driven by just wanting to be useful and figure out how to be part of something that could lead to some kind of piece of the movement, of change, and so it was like… ‘You’re interested in filming and documenting, but go pick that up.’ It was like, Okay, put [the camera] down. This isn’t important. We need to go get firewood, go get ice, whatever it may be,” said Ashley.
This was hard sometimes, Will acknowledged, because their role was to document, and it could be confusing for some people when they put the camera down in lieu of filming something.
“I think it was really… important to us to serve, participate,” he said. “We were very mindful of not wanting to come in and impose a vision and a story – extract – and that was very at top of mind. Because that’s not how we work.”
Raised in communities in Ohio, their upbringing was about making friends and building community. Not coming in and taking but figuring out how to give something.
The two ended up moving to Minneapolis in October 2020 and stayed until February of 2022, right around when Amir Locke was killed during a botched no-knock warrant raid of the apartment where he was sleeping (Locke was not a suspect in the warrant). They made several subsequent trips back here from New York.

IN CONVERSATION
In the film are scenes of a conversation among the three women that takes place around a table in an all-white room. This was inspired by photographer Carrie Mae Weems’ ‘Kitchen Table Series,’ a series of self portraits Weems takes over time of herself at the kitchen table – alone, with family members, with lovers.
“We were thinking about this idea of Black women gathering at the kitchen table and thinking about and reflecting on their own power,” said Ashley.
This dialogue flowed into the film festival, first at a community conversation that took place at the Belfry (3901 Chicago Ave.) earlier in the week. It was moderated by Resmaa Menakem, author, therapist and a leading voice in healing racialized trauma. Each screening was also followed by a Q&A with the film’s subjects, moderated at The Main by Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley and at the Capri by Trahern Crews of Black Lives Matter Minnesota.
Garraway, Austin and Wonsley shared with festival audiences what, as Conley asked, pulled each of them in the direction of action.
Garraway shared her story about the father of her son, Justin Teigen, being brutally beaten and left for dead in a dumpster in 2009 after an interaction with St. Paul police officers. She reports being followed and harassed by police afterwards. At the time, there was no Black Lives Matter movement, no other people she could turn to for support. She has long asked for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Teigen’s death and has now filed a lawsuit to reopen the case. No longer intimidated, Garraway is empowered as she joins with demonstrators and impacted families fighting for justice. For her it is imperative to get the rest of the names out there of Black men and women whose lives were taken at the hands of police.
Her first impulse when she saw the video of George Floyd’s murder was to “share, share, share” everywhere she could.
“I live what they did to Justin. I live it. And I know how they can cover up murder and twist it all around and make it become a accident,” she said. Once the Uprising happened, she felt a powerful urge to “move.”
“It was like God cracked a door for the rest of our families, and all we had to do was push. So that has been my purpose, my role, what keeps me going, is to push, continue to push that door so that people can understand the state of emergency that we are in,” said Garraway.
For Austin, the pull came because she was in the protest on the 35W bridge when the truck came barreling through, triggering trauma from past marches. She needed to find another way to protest and began tending to the memorial. In that work, she saw the power of art in holding systems accountable and shared her vision of picking up where other memorials end, from 1950 forward.
“I want people to know Black people are dying all over this country still. It’s not a thing of the past. History. It’s our present. If we don’t stop it, it will continue to be our future,” she said.
Wonsley described her pull as showing possibility, specifically in the political system. She campaigned and now serves as Minneapolis’ first Black Independent Socialist City Council Member. She mentioned Menakem’s observation about Blackness as living in the duality of possibility and peril.
“We had this very horrific moment, but it gave us this sense of, what can we create out of it,” she said, acknowledging Austin’s remarks in the documentary about innovation and beauty. “[At] George Floyd Square you see people from all walks of life making do, making new things and reclaiming their space.”

HOW THEY SUSTAIN THEMSELVES
In all three forums, the women were asked how they sustain themselves.
Wonsley spoke of the importance of having a team, a network of support, to allow her to take a nap or go to a coffee shop to strategize and reflect.
“We are doing everything, holding every single role, and… because we’re in survival mode, we’re often not given the grace and the space to create in,” she said.
Austin gave a shout out to family and friends who have held her accountable to self care, accompanying her for walks around the Mall, front porch conversations, walk and talks around the lake, and even a staycation at a nearby hotel.
As an introvert, she also needs time to be by herself.
“I get drained around a lot of people, so I just have to be aware of my limits and my capacity. And I don’t always see and sometimes it comes out sideways,” she said. “It’s work to do self care. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail, but you get up, keep trying, ‘cause the work is still there.”
Garraway has to force herself to take time for herself and credits Austin for urging her to rest.
“Black women, we’re getting sick. Because we know when these atrocities are happening to Black men in the community, we are the ones who pull our family together. We’re on the front lines. We are the ones just trying to keep everything together. And it’s weighing on us,” she said. “Everything we have had to endure as Black women… we feel that in our bodies, in our spirit, in our soul. We feel it, and we’re getting sick because of it.”
Asked what is needed in terms of support, Garraway urged audience members to learn about others who were killed by police.
“We have a responsibility as human beings to speak for the people that cannot speak for themselves,” she told the audience. “I want you guys to take Justin’s life, his killing, his lynching, personally. I want you guys to take Brandon Keys, Amir Locke, Leneal Frazier, Winston Smith and all of them personally. And I want you to fight for them like you would fight for your brother, your sister, your cousin, your best friend.”
The documentary website, www.ThePeoplesWayFilm.com, shares donation links for Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, Rise & Remember and Robin4Minneapolis.