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In the second episode of Hasaan Hates Portland, a fiendishly satirical web series written and directed by Mischa Webley that premieres on Oct. 3, the titular character (played by first-time actor Hasaan Thomas) steps into a coffee shop, looking for a latte. The baristas, both white and both carrying lobotomized expressions, refuse payment, explaining that it is “reparations happy hour.”
“It’s about acknowledging our privilege,” the female barista explains with increasing intensity. “Our white privilege.”
Incredibly ridiculous, yes, but it’s all based on a real event that happened in 2018 when activist Cameron Whitten solicited donations from white Portlanders that were then doled out to Black residents.
“Obviously we’re taking creative liberties,” Webley says, “but I couldn’t make that up. I’m not a good enough writer to think of that. A lot of this project came from me, Hasaan and other Black and Brown friends sharing our experiences in this crazy place we live in.”
From those conversations, Webley built Hasaan Hates Portland’s short, punchy episodes (each one is an easily digestible three-to-five-minutes long), exploring with acidic wit and bemusement the frustrations and a weirdness of being Black in a majority-white city.
Of the three installments I was able to watch, the first features a situation that will be very familiar to all Portlanders: trying to walk down the block while dodging signature collectors, nonprofit street teams and panhandlers. The third, though, centers on a searing monologue from Old Gold (William Earl Ray), pointing out the hypocrisy of gentrification pushing minorities out of desirable neighborhoods even as they place historical markers about the Black community on the street. “As if we’re part of history already,” Old Gold says. When that character undercuts his authority in a wickedly funny scene that follows (which I won’t spoil here), the effect is as bracing as being hit with a water balloon after giving a commencement address.
Hasaan Hates Portland has been a long-gestating project for Webley. The Portland native has made more than a half-dozen short subjects and a feature (2012′s The Kill Hole, starring a young Chadwick Boseman)—all dramas. This new series, spanning eight episodes, is the filmmaker’s first foray into comedy.
“It really took a lifetime of experience,” Webley says, “and I’ve been trying for a while to make fun of it and satirize it and make it funny. It just seemed like it’s not a perspective that’s out there, especially about Portland. That was the big driving force of making it.”
Even with a tight budget and a tighter shooting schedule, the process of putting the series together with an all-local cast and crew wound up being Webley’s best experience behind the camera. And it allowed the filmmaker to finally create a star vehicle for the show’s lead. According to Webley, the first time he and Thomas met in 2015, he told Thomas he should be on screen.
“He blew me off for years,” Webley says, “but I think it’s been really cathartic for him. He struggled a lot with what we’re touching on [in] the show. I think it’s hard for him to process some of those experiences but also figure out a way to do something positive with them—not letting it get so heavy that it just weighs on you but wanting to turn it into art.”
While Webley is currently busy putting the finishing touches on an anthology film project, he says he already has ideas in mind for a potential second run of Hasaan Hates Portland episodes in hopes of getting support from a streaming service or TV network to expand on what he’s built so far.
“My biggest hope with the project is that this gives us enough traction and visibility to get the opportunity to do that,” he says. “At the same time, I’ve been in the business for a long time. Every project has to be its own reward, so if this is what it is, that’s fine. It’s already gotten really great attention. That makes me feel like we’re tapping into something.”
SEE IT: Hasaan Hates Portland premieres on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, instagram.com/hasaanhatesportland. Thursday Oct. 3.