ALUMS FIGHT COVID COVID HEROES
FOOD CHAIN
Alisa Payne talks with a crew member on set.
ALIGNED Alisa Payne ’94
What does a film producer do during a pandemic-induced industry shutdown? Alisa Payne ’94 produced a film. Rejecting all the reasons not to make a movie in the summer of 2020, Payne masterminded 26 location shoots in six cities to deliver for broadcast the compelling HBO production “Between the World and Me,” the adaptation of an acclaimed Ta-Nehisi Coates book, in a mere 16 weeks. Bringing Coates’ words to screen was an urgent priority for the project team in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. Payne accepted the challenge: “It aligned with who I am as a person.” Compounding the project’s complexity was the need to scrupulously adhere to a myriad of Covid-era restrictions. “Good old Brooklyn Tech ingenuity” got her through, Payne says. “Between the World and Me” was nominated for a Critic’s Choice award and received a 95% Rotten Tomatoes rating. The film features a future Brooklyn Tech alum: Payne’s son Maddox, then a sophomore, had a cameo. Payne says she hopes her work “will effectuate change and make viewers work towards a truly anti-racist society.” ■ 20
Tec hTi m e s
FALL
2021
Donald Hong ’75 knows what to do with 11,000 gallons of milk and a trailer of cauliflower and bananas: give them away. The real estate entrepreneur started a food pantry in a vacant Manhattan storefront as Covid tightened its grip in March 2020. Before long the nonprofit group he heads, UA3, was a fourborough behemoth of benevolence distributing food to other pantries across the city. From Sunset Park to the South Bronx, Hong’s UA3 orchestrated an intricate supply chain that in one year brought six million pounds of meats, produce, cereals, and those 11,000 gallons of milk per week from federal warehouses and supermarkets to senior centers, public housing, and other underserved groups. Deliveries of cartons grew so tall that local pantries literally couldn’t handle them. So UA3 bought a forklift to facilitate the transfers. “When there’s a fire, someone has to put it out,” Hong says. “We saw the need and the suffering. It was a calling.” ■ To learn more about UA3: https://www.ua3now.org/
UA3 volunteers prepare food for distribution at a Brooklyn park. WWW.BTHSALUMNI.ORG
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ARIA ISADORA; COURTESY OF THE SUBJECT, COURTESY OF THE SUBJECT, KYLE HAN ‘20
Donald Hong ’75
