There was outrage in The Bronx when the last general-interest bookstore, Barnes & Noble, shut down permanently in 2017. Many Bronxites saw it as evidence that the borough is not viewed in a positive light and is forgotten when it comes to its intellectual curiosity. For filmmaker Gregory Hernandez, the turmoil gave him an idea to tell a story about illiteracy in the borough. The result is the film “1.5 Million: A Bronx Documentary” which, as preadvised, screened at the Pelham Parkway-Van Nest branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) on Aug. 28.

 

The number in the title refers to the population of the borough as of 2019, according to the filmmaker. A synopsis of the film outlines some disturbing statistics. “It is not by coincidence that access to literature has a profound effect on the culture of reading. As of 2016, only 56% of high school graduates in The Bronx are college ready. Poverty is a major factor, with 40% of children in the South Bronx living below the poverty line. A child raised in poverty is 13 times less likely to finish high school on time, if at all.”

 

Although the closing of the Barnes & Noble store in Baychester acts as a dramatic centerpiece to the film, there are also some uplifting stories about the resiliency of Bronxites when it comes to raising its literacy levels. As reported, Noelle Santos is founder and owner of The Lit Bar, a brick-and-mortar store in the South Bronx that combines book selling with selling wine. The wine bar-book shop opened in 2019 and in the film, Santos reveals, “I didn’t step foot inside of an independent bookstore until I decided to open one.”

 

Then there’s Brandon Montes, founder of the Norwood Community Library. As reported, Montes started his literacy outreach effort with just a few crates of books on East Gun Hill Road in 2018. As reported, he has since expanded the library’s reach to include a library exchange box, which he refers to as “a little library” outside the office of Norwood News, located at The Keeper’s House at 3400 Reservoir Oval East and Putnam Place in Norwood.

 

Montes said he plans to inaugurate another box in the lobby of North Central Bronx Hospital in October. “It’s a pilot program right now, but if that goes well Jacobi [Hospital] will get one too,” Montes told Norwood News after the film screening. Montes also encourages others to do what they can to improve literacy efforts in The Bronx, no matter how small they may appear. “I’m not a teacher. I have a regular nine to five [job],” he said. “One thing I like to stress is that we can do it. … All of us can be the change that we want to see. … I love the Bronx and I want to help.”

Meantime, Hernandez, 32, has ambitious plans to show his documentary to a wider audience. He believes the story can resonate with people beyond The Bronx. “We have a couple of offers,” the director said. “We’re trying to see if we can get this on to a streaming platform like Roku, or get it syndicated on PBS. We would love to have a theatrical release because if we have a theatrical release, then we can get our movie reviewed in The New York Times. … Everything is on the table for us.”

 

The filmmaker, who is also involved in the Annual Bronx 48-Hour Film Challenge, describes himself as “essentially born and raised in The Bronx.” He attended Cardinal Hayes High School in the South Bronx and graduated from college in 2013, majoring in English at the State University of New York at Binghamton. While his academic background did not include formal training in filmmaking, he became drawn to the possibilities of telling stories through a visual medium when, shortly after graduation, a friend from school invited him to work on some film projects.

 

“That just had a chain reaction, a domino effect of being able to work on more projects and I started freelancing,” Hernandez said. “And then here we are nine years later, and I’ve essentially made six short films, a web series, and now a feature film.”

 

Asked what he hopes audiences will take away after viewing the film, Hernandez lists three things. “One, they get a full understanding of the resiliency from the people of The Bronx… and understand that those negative stereotypes are exactly that, negative stereotypes.” He then adds, “The second thing is that they [the audience] get a clear call to action that you can elevate literacy in your neighborhood, in your building, in your home. You don’t have to open a bookstore, but you can have a home library. You can donate your books. You can join a book club.”

 

His final thought merges a local issue with a national problem. “This is a very intimate portrait of the borough but it’s a microcosm of a larger crisis; this [illiteracy] is a national crisis.”

 

“1.5 Million” will screen at the Bronx Library Center on Sept. 23 at 4 p.m. There will be a Q&A with the filmmaker after the screening.

 

For more information about the film, click here.

 

To read some related stories on literacy efforts in The Bronx, click here, here, here, and here.