An Interview with Nicco Annan & Shoshana Guy from ‘Down in the Valley’

Nicco Annan in Episode 101 of ‘Down in the Valley’ – ‘Diamonds of Memphis’. (Photo Courtesy of STARZ.)

Nicco Annan is a highly accomplished actor that has received critical acclaim for his work as Uncle Clifford on the hit STARZ series, P-Valley. Shoshana Guy is a highly accomplished showrunner that has brought to life several acclaimed documentary series, such as The 1619 Protect. Now, this duo has teamed up to bring us Down in the Valley on STARZ, a powerhouse documentary that debuts on the network on Friday and we had the distinct honor of sitting down with both of them to discuss this incredible new docu-series.
 
John Betancourt: I'd love to start by getting to know what inspired each of you to want to come together and tell these stories.
 
Nicco Annan: I mean, it was like a force. Ironically, we did not know one another, but we actually have threads in our community of people that we do know separately, but coming together as artists has been… just… it's been a joy. It's been one of the best things that you know has happened from this process. I think working with Shoshana and her background and who she is as a person has been amazing. You know, I think that the world of P-Valley can be very intimidating for a lot of people to kind of say, let's come on in. And she's been able to handle it with such a dignity, a love, and a respect and open to all the creativity of it. So, it was just like we were good Mama and Papa, you know, getting it together.
 
Shoshana Guy: Yeah. I mean, ditto. You know, it was such an opportunity to be able to work with Nico (Annan) and Katori (Hall) and be able to expand on their vision for the flagship show and sort of translate it into the world that I come from, which is ultimately a journalistic background, in its birth and, yeah, be able to bring together an amazing team of people to create this really nuanced, I think, tender and fun look at our lives as black people in the south.
 
John Betancourt: I'm also very curious… what it means to each of you to be giving life to a documentary that really is unlike any other on television, because I can't think of one that I've ever seen like this before.
 
Shoshana Guy: Oh, thank you for that. Because, yeah, I do feel like it's very fresh in its effort, in the same kind of way that the P-Valley show is very fresh in its effort. And, you know, just being able to tell the breadth of stories that we don't often get to see. You know, just diving into ideas around, like, black female pleasure and like, breaking down the barriers of shame that have existed for so long, you know, getting into, you know, queer black life and like, what that looks like, what it means, you know, people's experiences -- the outside of what we see versus what's actually happening on the inside. And so, I think there's a lot of kind of, like, what's underneath that this show is able to kind of unearth. And so that, to me, is very fresh and exciting in a way that, like, you know, my secret favorite, well, not so secret now, because I've been telling everyone, but the “The Hoodoo” episode, which is just, I feel like, maybe our most unique effort in the sense of, like, really looking at how African ritual continues to show up, and how it has always been a part of the fabric of our lives, that there's nothing to be afraid of, that it's been, you know, sort of, stigmatized, but that it belongs to us, and it shows up anyway. It's here.
 
Nicco Annan: And it also was just a beautiful opportunity to be able to use all of our creativity and artistry in telling those stories and incorporating the dance, the lighting, the cinematography, the music, you know, the music really coming from people from the south. The music being a part of like, we're in Mississippi and we're listening to Mississippi Blues that's done by Silas or done by this artist, there's just so many people that layered in this, this the world and making this, whether in production, pre-production, in production and in the post of it all that helped us to be able to articulate these stories in this docuseries in such an elevated way. I feel like in a lot of ways, it would we have just as much care as one would in a scripted series.
 
John Betancourt: That leads me right to my next question, speaking of assembly. In that, what kind of challenges did you each encounter in putting together something this ambitious.
 
Nicco Annan: You know, you never have enough days, you know, to be there to do the thing. Time, you know, and doing it. But I will say this, it was a wonderful journey, working with Zero Point Zero, the production company who, you know, did Boudain’s show and Nomad, and all of that, coming into this world where there was a level of artistry that was already understood. And I think that my own as a creative mind, I will say, I don't want to say madness, but I'll say my mission. (Laughter from all) It was embraced, you know? But I think that when you have space to be able to say, I'm dreaming, and this is what I see, and just different ideas that, you know, would come up in our meetings and conversation, and being able to have directors and a producing team that could go forth and make it happen. We had that.
 
Shoshana Guy: Yeah, the challenge of time, I think, as a showrunner, was just really, you know, like trying to cram a lot into a short production period, and then really making sure that as we unraveled the stories and as we put them together, that the integrity really stayed intact in terms of, like, what it is that we were trying to illustrate. And that can be tricky sometimes, you know, for various reasons. And so, I'm very proud of that, in all of our efforts of really, you know, sticking to our guns in a lot of ways, and saying, like, “No, this is actually what we're going for, and we're not going to compromise it.”
 
John Betancourt: I think what I was most surprised about with this documentary series was the fact that, you know, these stories have obviously been out there forever. I don't know why they weren't told sooner, but finally, they're being told. And I'm very curious as to why each of you think now is that right moment to just bring these stories into the spotlight?
 
Nicco Annan: To your point, I think that it always was the right time. You know, I think that maybe someone didn't have the courage, maybe the space was not there. But what I do know is that working on the flagship show, on P-Valley, has opened up so many doors, and I'm walking through them. You know what I mean? You know, there's no need to -- I don't play soft. We coming in hot. We coming in hot. And that's the point, I think, that there's so much content that's out there right now that we didn't want to create something that was not true. We didn't want to create something that didn't have an amplified reverberation of heart. So, I think that that's what we did, that was the intention, and wanted to have fun. Wanted to celebrate. It's summertime. We have been through pandemic. We have been through strikes. We have been through strife. There's world wars going on, but there's… there's a reason still to be.
 
Shoshana Guy: Yeah, and I think when someone like Katori opens up the door in terms of, like, the vision that she had for this show, it's the right time to continue to build on that. So, you know, she, sort of opened this door. Then Nicco comes in and has this idea, like, “Hey, let's expand it in this way.” And then he and I have this merging of minds. So, you know, I always believe that everybody kind of comes together in the right time, in just the right moment, to create the things that they create.
 
John Betancourt: So, there it is, plainly said: this is the moment.
 
Nicco Annan: Yeah! It is what it is, baby!
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity

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