[MUSIC PLAYING]
The pitch,
honestly, every time
I heard it, I wanted to cry.
I've been calling it the
greatest pitch of all time.
I describe "David Makes
a Man" like poetry on TV.
How do you describe it?
I describe it as lifting
the larger questions,
theories and investigations
about who we are
and how we got here.
How did I get here?
What is your story?
Will there be one?
AKILI MCDOWELL: David
is a 14-year-old prodigy
that's trying to make it
out to a better place.
Overcoming trauma and
difficult circumstances.
It's a story of coming
of age and beyond,
of community and family,
of search for identity.
It's a story of
dualism and dichotomy.
The idea of code switching.
That game that you play
to accomplish the pitfalls
and all the obstacles
that you come
across coming from the hood.
I was one of those kids also.
This story is an
unapologetically black story
about a young prodigy
who through the use
of his imagination,
is creating a world
for himself that is bigger
than where he comes from.
And his mind is
always changing.
Whenever he is having
like a rough time,
that's when he
goes to to escape.
That's his way out
from really losing it.
Hey.
There is nothing down
there, nothing at all.
People need to see
your eyes, David.
You cannot sink down.
PHYLICIA RASHAD: We're certainly
looking at the character David.
But David is not
the only character.
Morning.
PHYLICIA RASHAD: There is
a full panorama of humanity
in this series presented in ways
to just have never seen before.
So authentically.
Watch your words about
the field, young son.
And this line, it ain't
here to protect you.
It's to protect them
from these projects.
The Ville is a dynamic
character within itself.
In this community, there
are known drug dealers.
And children can
follow in the footsteps
of what they are seeing in
their immediate environment.
A lot of times you
think of the projects
and you see pain
and turmoil, but no
one talks about the
joy and the love
that is experienced within
these whole communities.
The Ville is a place
that we all become men
and we all learn to deal
with the world around us.
We learn how to survive.
We learn how to fight.
We also learn how to
love in The Ville.
Bye, Dave.
See you around.
The Ville is home.
This show is about
people, about humans.
The beautiful thing is it
gives us an opportunity to walk
a mile in someone else's shoes.
As a black woman, for me
it's important to let people
know that they're not alone.
It's an amazing feeling
to be an audience member
and have your story
reflected back to you.
It's so important
to tell stories
differently in different
ways and in new ways.
This show is so real, so blunt.
It's coming at you
about like how it really
is, not sugar-coating anything.
It's about resilience,
perseverance and overcoming
the things that
previously held us down.
Terrell is tapping
into aspects of life
that we have not seen
on television thus far.
And he's stepping
into it boldly,
and he's stepping
into it with a ton
of creativity and imagination.
The way Tarell
writes, it was like,
man, this is what I
got to be a part of.
Sometimes we hear that
there's a certain way
to tell black stories,
and that's just not true.
For our show, there's
a lot of sensory,
there's a lot of feeling,
there's a lot of depth,
there's a lot of what
some might call art.
But it also is about
emotional resonance.
The things that we can't quite
quantify that sneak up on us.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
