This post has been updated.

In the documentary “Finding the Gold Within,” about 25 young African-American men sit in chairs arranged in a circle, each one with an African drum in front of them. Between the rhythmic drumming and the storyteller’s narration, they each talk about their college experiences with friends they’ve had since they were in the sixth grade. 

These graduates of Alchemy Inc., a nonprofit that focuses on mentoring young men of color and helping them discover the “gold” within, have spent years learning to share their feelings and rise above society’s low expectations of them. In the 90-minute documentary, which debuts in Akron tonight as part of the Cleveland International Film Festival, they return to the circle – their anchor.

Alchemy’s founder Kwame Scruggs pauses the storytelling in the circle to ask a question, “How does society see you?”

One young man answers, “If somebody doesn’t know me, they see me as their definition of the typical black urban male.”

“What is the definition of the typical black urban male?” Scruggs asks.

“We’re kind of like the world’s worst fear,” said Brandyn Costa, one of six young men featured in the film. “The world knows we got it [gold] inside of us, but we choose to do the wrong thing. The world doesn’t understand why we are doing the wrong thing because they don’t know the spots that we have been in.”

Later in the film, Darius Simpson, another young man featured in the film, offered his take on the stereotypical black urban male.

“Currently you have the musician, the athlete and the law breaker,” says Simpson in the film. “Those three things are perpetuated … and that’s quite sad.”

The documentary’s director, Karina Epperlein, wanted to break past that stereotype and show the souls of the young men graduating Alchemy as they moved on to college life.

Scruggs created Alchemy after he discovered that telling young people a mythological story—like a fairy tale—and asking them how they feel about the story was a productive way to help them deal with the problems in their lives. It removes them from the situation so they can look at things objectively. The point is to help them see themselves as the heroes of their own story. Since it’s founding, Alchemy has mentored more than 1,500 young men through its regular 10-week program.

Knight Foundation provided financial support as Alchemy was getting started in 2005. It also is sponsoring the documentary debut and paid for the young men to attend the film’s world premiere in September 2014 at the Mill Valley Film Festival in California.

In agreeing to the documentary, Scruggs said he wanted the public to see the power of the myth and “the potential in our young fellas. Not just Alchemy youth but any urban youth.”

Epperlein saw the film’s potential similarly and told the young men during filming that they were “standing in for other black men. And they totally took that up,” she said.

“She never let us forget it,” said Simpson with a chuckle last week from Eastern Michigan University where he’s a senior.

Epperlein had been filming for a little while before she settled on which of the young men she wanted to feature in the documentary.

“When we got these emails saying we were going to be the protagonists, [I thought,] ‘Oh, ok. I guess that means I’m doing more interviews than other people. I can dig it,’” said Simpson. “I am ridiculously thankful to Kwame and Karina. It’s mind blowing how I couldn’t have seen this coming. I can’t even enumerate the opportunities, the brotherhood, getting to know and be close to Karina. I have seen California! … I went to the edge of the country, literally!”

Simpson was a self-described “class clown” in the ninth grade at Copley High School in Akron when he was drafted to participate in the first Alchemy group. At first he saw it as a chance to get out of class but eventually he couldn’t wait for the mythological stories and drumming circles. The young men asked to extend the 10-week program several times. Ten weeks became four years. Then they returned twice a year once in college. The documentary covers the college years.

In the film, Simpson uses his original poetry and drumming to express his feelings about racism and his strained relationship with his father, which eventually improved. President of the university’s poetry society, Simpson has been praised for his poetry since he was in the fourth grade.

He considered law school, but “now with everything going on in the world, the community needs my help.” Hesitant to make any firm plans, he said he might choose to teach at an urban middle school after graduation to help other young men like himself. Then he might “actually have more free time, be an activist and … write a book.”

His activism has already begun. In October 2014, he attended a protest in Ferguson, Mo., where he recited a powerful poem he wrote called “Genocide” about the unjust killing of black men.

In the film, Simpson said, “I got this drive to be heard because I feel like society doesn’t really see me at all, so it’s like, if you’re not going to see me, you gonna damn sure hear me.”

Susan Ruiz Patton is a freelancer writer based in Northeast Ohio.