Black Portland filmmaker creates award-winning documentary on trip to Yachats, Newport and Florence

By KRISTI TURNQUIST/The Oregonian/OregonLive

A trip to the Oregon coast can be a relaxing getaway for many, but for Portland filmmaker Devin Boss, a visit to Yachats became a transformative experience.

One of the fruits of that trip is a short documentary, “What We Lost Along the Way,” which captures the experiences Boss and two of his Portland friends had during their own journey to the coast.

Boss recalls watching the waves crash against the rocks at Thor’s Well on his Oregon coast road trip with his two friends.

“It’s probably like in the top five things I’ve ever witnessed in nature,” he told Travel Oregon of the natural attraction in Yachats, just below the Cape Perpetua Visitors Center. “It was like standing at the foot of a volcano, so amazing to witness the raw power of nature. I could’ve stood there forever.”

The documentary is designed to inspire people like Boss to be intentional about spending time in nature with loved ones. As Boss says in the narration that begins the 15-minute film, a few years ago he was struggling with stress and anxiety, “brimming with pain, and nowhere to put it.”

Needing an escape, he spent “the last of my savings” on an Airbnb at the coast. He found the time there was “calming, soothing, therapeutic,” Boss said in an interview.

“There’s so much of the coast to explore,” Boss says. “But I think there was something super-endearing about that experience for me. I just knew I wanted to go back there and share that same space with my friends.”

Boss, 34, did just that, after winning a $22,500 Outdoor Adventure Film Grant, awarded by Travel Oregon and Oregon Film. The film won Best Shorts Award at the worldwide Best Shorts Competition, and was well-received at its screening at November’s Portland Film Festival.

The coast is for everyone

“What We Lost Along the Way” is a sensitive record of Boss and his friends, Solamon Ibe and Mat Randol, experiencing the coast during visits to locations such as Yachats, Newport, and Florence.

In thinking about the documentary, Boss, who, like his friends, is a Black man, found himself wondering, “Why do we assume this isn’t for us?”

The film acknowledges that Black people have a complicated relationship with nature, and Boss says there are reasons for that.

“I’ve heard of so many different experiences from Black people who have been out in the woods, and a white person will say, ‘What are you doing in my woods?’ ”

In writing the grant proposal for “What We Lost Along the Way,” Boss thought about “how things nest in your soul, and your spirit. How things get passed down in a crazy way. You think about so many of these assumptions that we have, like Black people not wanting to swim, and thinking about when swimming pools were desegregated, and white people were running around throwing acid on black people in pools, and bleach, and crazy stuff like that.”

“It comes from somewhere tangible, somewhere real,” Boss says. “I think when I set out to make the documentary, I wanted to answer more of those questions, and I ended up doing a different documentary than I intended. It ended up being more about just healing with my brothers, and less about trying to answer a bunch of questions. It was more about sharing moments of connectivity with each other, and nature.”

Boss, Ibe and Randol drove ATVs on the dunes and took their first guided kayak tour in Newport. They spent time on misty forest trails, put their phones away and found themselves opening up about their vulnerabilities — something they wouldn’t have necessarily done back home.

“We were realizing a lot of people have similar experiences,” he says. “We’re trying to dispel the myth that Black people don’t go outdoors.”

Indeed, Boss told Travel Oregon that one of the unique aspects of the trip was traveling while Black.

“You know you’re an outlier in the space,” he says, however “when we’re together there’s a sense of brotherhood — I felt as safe as I could feel.” Race is something he is “consciously aware of” as he travels into different regions and wilderness areas, he says.

In the past, Boss told Travel Oregon that he’s traveled to the coast on his own and “I was extremely circumspect, on alert.” On this trip, “everybody showed up normal.”

That said, Boss wants Black visitors and others to “do what you want to do,” he says. “This space is as much ours as anyone else’s.”

For an added feeling of security, he says, “I would say take someone you love with you — someone equally as open to new experiences and adventures.”

While dreaming up his next Oregon adventures, Boss is working on promoting his film at more festivals and in the community. In the past he’s worked with organizations like Black Parent Initiative, North by Northeast Community Health Center, Brown Hope, Self Enhancement, Inc., Oregon Black Pioneers and more, to tell stories of struggle, perseverance, passion, community and triumph.

“It’s so powerful to redefine your self narrative,” Boss says. “For us to not take advantage of these spaces, that’s a huge disservice to us. That’s the most impactful force for positivity in life.”

• “What We Lost Along the Way” can be viewed at the Travel Oregon website, and on YouTube.