Director Mischa Webley always had big plans for Hasaan Hates Portland. Producing the semi-autobiographical story about, per its log line, “being Black in the whitest and weirdest city in America” as a series of web shorts was something of a compromise. Though, if you were living in Portland when the episodes rolled out in 2024, you probably know the online format didn’t hold the show back.
Millions watched the short, documentary-style episodes and followed along as the titular character, Hasaan (played by Hasaan Thomas), encountered a mess of well-meaning but wildly ignorant white people. There was a “reparations happy hour.” White canvassers collecting signatures for African children were dismayed that a Black man wouldn’t stop to help support their cause. Post-brunch, two white people offered Hasaan their leftovers, presuming for no apparent reason other than his skin color that he was unhoused.
In many ways, it was an update to Portlandia, but from a Black perspective…