Paris Barclay (Left) and Alvin Agarrat (Right). Alvin is wearing CNP’s Burre Lane “Bayard & Baldwin” Hoodie

The name Paris Barclay is synonymous with television. The two-time Emmy award-winning director was blazing a path in Hollywood and opening doors for women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ performers years before he broke the ultimate glass ceiling in 2013 by becoming the first openly gay African-American to become President of The Directors Guild of America. While Barclay may not receive the type of celebrity attention as the actors he directs, his work behind-the-scenes on television shows such as ER, NYPD Blue, Glee, Scandal, Empire, and Station 19 over his 30-year career has repeatedly landed him on Variety Magazine’s list as one of 500 most influential business leaders in Hollywood. But before he was in demand out west, Barclay was making a name for himself as a music video director on the east coast—having directed videos for Bob Dylan, New Kids on the Block, “The Best Things in Life Are Free” for Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross, and the MTV and Billboard award-winning “Mama Said Knock You Out” for LL Cool J—a partnership that would see the rapper and director team up for eight music videos.

A Chicago Heights, IL native and graduate of Harvard College, Barclay’s transition to New York City in the 80s after a stint as an advertising executive set the wheels in motion for him to launch Black and White Television, a production company he co-founded with business partner Joel Hinman, who is white, and Barclay who is Black, resulting in its name. It’s the place where Miami transplant Alvin Agarrat, a young, hungry director desperate for an internship first crossed paths with Barclay in the early 90s. Agarrat, who has called Atlanta home since 2007, tells The Reckoning that his professional relationship with Barclay began out of proximity, coincidence, and a popular first name.

“The more I come to terms with who I am, the more I’m willing to write about my experiences or let my experiences directly inform my narrative.”

— Alvin Agarrat

“When I moved to NY, I took everything I’d ever directed, which was literally some no-budget music videos, the different shows I’d created for Access Channel, etc,” said Agarrat. “I edited together my three-quarter inch reel. I must have sent out 100 reels to every single production company at the time,” he said.

In the pre-internet and social media era where human connection and in-person applications were still common practice for job consideration, Agarrat says he hit the New York City pavement, visiting production company after production company to get his foot in the door. One of the buildings he recalls visiting was at 73 Spring Street where the production company responsible for videos for the 90s hip-hop group Organized Konfusion had an office.

“I went to their production company with my reel asking to intern,” said Agarrat. “They said, ‘we don’t need any interns right now...we’re a small production company.’ Their office was 501 at 73 Spring Street, and Black and White Television was at 503. They said ‘maybe if you go down the hall they might be looking for interns and you can ask them.’ And that’s what I did,” he said.

Agarrat says he walked about 20 steps from one office to the other to be met with the same fate, a production company with no need for interns. But unlike the previous office, the staff who initially dashed his hopes a second time would throw him a lifeline upon learning that Agarrat shared something in common with a fellow employee—the same first name.

“One of the people who worked there, an Asian-American man named Alvin Lee, I guess Alvin is not a common name. They thought it was funny that Alvin was coming in to apply. They were like, Alvin, come meet Alvin. That was the joke. That was all I needed to get in. They ended up offering me an internship, and I was basically just the office personal assistant. Alvin [Lee] became Alvin 1, and I became Alvin 2, so Paris [Barclay] could differentiate. My name got me through the door,” he said.

Months earlier, Agarrat was a graduating senior at The University of Florida majoring in journalism. With no real blueprint for a successful career in film and television and even fewer Black directors he could consider role models before Barclay took him under his wing, Agarrat says Spike Lee’s directorial debut “She’s Gotta Have It” ignited his artistic flame, and his move to New York City was partly motivated by his desire to land an internship on Malcolm X, which was shooting in the city. It was the same determination, inexperience, and absence of fear in those early days that Agarrat says allowed him to approach Barclay with his reel.

“I walked in there, and again, I was green, but I had something that you have when you’re young and green—this arrogance. I showed him my reel, I had my little three-quarter-inch tape, and I remember him laughing in an ‘oh this is cute’ kind of way,” said Agarrat.

Eventually, Agarrat’s work ethic would command the respect of Barclay, and the hungry intern who began making coffee would be trusted to write music video treatments alongside the in-demand music video director, ultimately becoming responsible for Snoop Dogg’s 1993 debut single, “What’s My Name?.” But it would be the music video treatment for another iconic rapper that Barclay would assign to Agarrat that would prove to be his biggest break as a director at the time.

“One day we received a tape, we didn’t know the artist. It was for Tupac. Nobody in the office knew who Tupac was, so we were making fun of his name," said Agarrat. "The budget was $75,000 and Paris did nothing at the time for less than $250,000. Paris said, ‘Alvin, listen to this song.’ It was for “Brenda’s Got A Baby.” He said, ‘I’ll take it and let you direct it’ and basically he’d be the co-director in order for it to go through. I listened to it. I loved it. I wrote a treatment and I let him read it. He was like, ’This is good, but you can do better. Go back and push and be more creative.”

Agarrat says Barclay wanted to see him succeed as a director and searched for opportunities for him and other directors on his staff to take the lead on projects. But due to budget issues, the direction on the Tupac Shakur video for “Brenda’s Got A Baby” ultimately went to the Hughes Brothers.

Life influences art

Today, under his Kalvin Films production company, Agarrat continues to direct music videos and documentaries (Outrun The Sky, From Where I Stand), many of which are influenced by his experience as an openly gay Black man, an identity that Agarrat and Barclay share, but in the early 90s was not a topic of discussion as neither were out.

In an interview with GLAAD, Barclay, who officially came out publicly in 1994, revealed his thoughts on being out in Hollywood.

“If there are people who are homophobic who don’t want to work with gay people, then they don’t call me up, which gives me this great idea that when people do call me up, they kinda know what my story is,” said Barclay. “There’s no hiding, there are no questions about it and that's just what they get. If I’ve lost jobs because I’ve been gay and out, they’re probably people I didn’t want to work with anyway,” he said.

“The more I come to terms with who I am, the more I’m willing to write about my experiences or let my experiences directly inform my narrative,” said Agarrat, who centers the experiences of Black gay men in much of his recent work.

As one of Hollywood’s most sought after and versatile television directors, Barclay says his mission is to dispel prejudices about women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color directors in the TV and film industry.

“I’m out to dispel those prejudices and I’m out to be an example that you can just be who you are and still be the captain of the ship. So get over it,” he said.

As for the lasting impression Barclay left on Agarrat, now a full-fledged director in his own right, Agarrat says, “then and now, he’s just a brilliant person. He is warm. He is giving. He’s so multifaceted. I’m so happy that I got to be a part of his life, to be around him, to learn from him. I can’t stress that enough.”