From heartwarming to heartbreaking--that’s the vast emotional range captured in the four-part docuseries Boys in Blue (Showtime), directed by Peter Berg. The humanity, tragedy and triumph of real-life characters makes an indelible impression as Berg delves into North Community High School and its Polars football team in North Minneapolis during the 2021 season with players coming of age in the aftermath of the brutal killing of George Floyd by police officers.
While Floyd’s murder impacted the world, fueling the Black Lives Matter movement and calls for social justice and police reform, Boys in Blue takes an unexpected turn with the story of another gut-wrenching killing--that of 15-year-old Deshaun Hill Jr., a star quarterback and honor roll student at North High whom viewers of Boys in Blue had come to root for on and off the football field. We learn in the tail end of the series that the youngster was randomly gunned down in broad daylight on February 9, 2022, by a man nearly twice his age with a violent criminal history. Hill had walked by the man; they brushed shoulders and the youngster was shot three times in the back of the head. Hill had been walking to a bus stop and in a fleeting moment was deprived of a promising future, leaving a family and community in mourning.
At the same time, Boys in Blue shows the resiliency of a small town even in the face of overwhelming adversity. There’s hope to be found in the football team itself, consisting of mostly Black student-athletes who are coached and mentored by members of the Minneapolis Police Department. Also unfolding in the series is a thoughtful exploration of a defunding the police ballot initiative as those in favor and those opposed articulate their stances. All the while the North Community High School players are concerned for their coaches’ safety and job security on the gridiron sideline. If the ballot measure passes that would replace many police officers with a more nuanced public safety department, the mentor/coaches might have to seek employment elsewhere, jeopardizing a positive bond that has evolved between law enforcement personnel and the youngsters.
The multi-faceted, empathy-evoking stories told in this docuseries required a caring visual language fashioned by cinematographer William Rouse, Berg and producer Mandon Lovett. SHOOT connected with Rouse who credited Lovett with helping garner him the opportunity to lens Boys in Blue. The two had an extensive track record together on Lovett-directed hip-hop documentaries and fare that the DP said “tells stories in the Black community that need to be told.” When Lovett approached Rouse about Boys in Blue, the DP was immediately drawn to the project. Lovett connected Rouse with Berg and served as an ongoing conduit between the cinematographer and the director during the production. Rouse said that Berg’s creative vision for the series was rooted in a steadfast commitment to do justice to the stories they uncovered in the community. Boys in Blue marked Rouse’s first time working with Berg.
For Rouse the biggest challenge came with the death of Hill. “I had never lost anyone to gun violence. We were in his room two days before it happened,” recalled the DP who had just also lensed Hill and his girlfriend as they were having dinner at a restaurant and just talking.” Rouse noted that on that night, Hill had texted Lovett with thanks for giving him the opportunity to be part of the film and making him feel like a superstar. Mandon, continued Rouse, replied via text to Hill that he was and will continue to be a superstar.
When news came of Hill’s passing, Rouse said, “I didn’t want to go back [to filming]. It was too emotional for me.”
But Rouse and his colleagues ultimately decided to resume their work on the series, feeling a deep sense of purpose.
That purpose had translated into the alluded to visual language Rouse adopted for Boys in Blue. He too had come from a disadvantaged community and wanted to depart from the TV norm of it being depicted negatively as a place of foreboding danger. So rather than a handheld verite feel that lent itself to such grittiness, Rouse went with Canon EF lenses, zooms and tripods in tandem with the production company’s Sony FX9 cameras to highlight “how beautiful these places and communities are.” That “beauty motif” reflects what residents see in their home community and its people--despite the problems that exist.
Still, those problems are front and center in this docuseries. “These kids are facing a lot more things than I ever have,” shared Rouse who said the community he grew up in wasn’t stricken to the same extent by such perils. But Rouse was well aware of the danger from first-hand experience, noting that he had family and friends who lived in such places which he would visit on select weekends, for instance. What impresses him to this day is how those people--like the residents in North Minneapolis--"keep going, keep living their lives."
During filming, Rouse fully realized that he had the freedom to at some point leave the Boys in Blue environs and settle back in Los Angeles--an escape option that wasn’t readily available to the people whose lives he was chronicling . This gave Rouse a self-described case of “survivor’s guilt.”
Assuaging that guilt, though, is his work as Rouse strives to tell important stories, helping to foster awareness, caring and empathy. Among the prime lessons he learned from his experience on Boys in Blue was “to trust my gut,” relating that getting in touch with the spirit behind his work “inspires me to tell stories a certain way. The times I lean into that, I get the best results.”
On the industry front, among the results for Boys in Blue is Emmy Awards season buzz. Berg, of course, has an Emmy pedigree, having been nominated for Outstanding Drama Series and Directing for a Drama Series on the strength of Friday Night Lights. Berg is also a two-time Writers Guild Award nominee--for Friday Night Lights and the feature film Lone Survivor.
As for what’s next, Rouse lensed a narrative feature, Magic Carpet Ride, which will come out on Tubi in June. At press time Rouse was working on a documentary for Hulu about a historic Black boarding school in Mississippi. And while he continues his cinematography exploits, Rouse is also developing select projects as a producer and director.