Kirby, a filmmaker and D.C. resident, is co-creator, writer and director of photography for an upcoming sitcom called “H Street” about a certain neighborhood in Northeast Washington with the same name.
What is “H Street”?
“H Street” is basically a sitcom that takes place in a gentrifying neighborhood that involves kind of your typical D.C. characters: a Republican, a Democrat, a nonprofit save-the-world type and an independent artist. Those are the four main characters who experience a robbery at the restaurant they are at and that sort of ties them together. … You see a lot of shows set in D.C. that are really politically driven, but we wanted to tell the story, explore it from the underbelly, more of a local’s perspective.
Do you live on H Street?
I live close. I live over by the New York Avenue Metro, three or four blocks away.
You’re having a screening on Aug. 31 at the Argonaut restaurant on H Street. How can others see it?
We’re planning that out right now. So far we’ve done some festival submissions. … We’re definitely planning an online release as well.
What do you envision over the long term: an online show or getting picked up by a television network?
The hope is we created a show for a half-hour TV spot. That’s the ultimate goal, but seeing as it’s more of an independent production company, we’re trying to be realistic about it.
Gentrification is a big issue in D.C. Is it funny, a sitcom waiting to happen?
I think it definitely is. It’s finding a balance because a lot of issues are touchy, whether it’s racial issues or all the issues that are brought in from pumping a lot of money into a neighborhood that was kind of beaten down. There are good elements of that in filling up the neighborhood, but obviously it brings tensions, it brings conflict. … The goal in essence is to allow people to explore that rather than live with the elephant in the room, proverbially.
