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Girl Lost: Oaktown Filmmaker’s Critique by Mateen Kemet
Writer/director Mateen Kemet (white pants) shooting 'Oakland B Mine''s male star Anthony Haynes (brown jacket) and actors playing his friends, Moyende Kamali (left) and Oscar Arteta (right). photo: Runaway Filmworx
At the end of my cinematic ode to Oaktown, “Oakland B Mine,” I have a credit section titled “Oakland Is”… And the more I ponder Oakland, the more I realize that that is the most appropriate Oakland description phrase of ALL time. Why? Because Oakland IS so many things at once: both exciting and sleepy, green yet wasteful, cutting edge yet obsolete, creative yet incredibly backwards.
I love Oakland…and I hate it at times as well. I love it for its teasingly powerful potential, and I hate it for the hard doses of hopelessness that she shows me under her skirt— like the three times I got my car stolen from my carport or my ongoing fight for funding with the city government.
In the film “Oakland B Mine,” (produced by Julie Rubio) I attempted to create an homage to all the beautiful but hidden things about the city that most of us often forget—the lyricism and soulfulness, the straight talk and dip walk, the greenery, the MUSIC, the sunshine… and the MONEY. Yes people, there is definitely moula in these parts; money that no one seems to want to acknowledge, least of all the people with it. What’s up with that? Maybe the affluent folk would prefer the wealth of Oaktown stay hidden so that they can live in the hills without paying San Francisco prices—I’m just sayin’.
Beyond all this conspiracy talk, my goal with the film was to show the commerce and vibrancy of our city on a warm autumn day. I think I succeeded, as most people who have seen it have remarked, particularly about the areas they had forgotten. They also also excited about the areas they frequent and that someone had captured them on film: the Lakeshore farmers market on a sunny weekend or a beautiful sunset at Shoreline park—to pick a couple.
Erinn Anova looks on as director Mateen Kemet confers with director of photography, Khamisi Norwood. photo: Runaway Filmworx
The problem, however, is that Oakland will not let the good stuff rest. She’s like that self-destructive lover whom you adore and try your best to get to act right but ultimately won’t. You soon realize that you have to leave or you’re gonna go down with the ship. Oakland will continue to drive you batty.
Case in point: The city is attempting to close its film office, headed by Ami Zins. Word on the street is that it may also slash the Cultural Funding Program and its grant program, where many of Oakland’s artists have received small grants to do their thing. Many a filmmaker have started and finished projects, paid their crews, bought vital equipment and eaten off that $5,000 check—yours truly included.
Oakland gets its fair chances but she continually looks the gift horse in the mouth. She could have scored big with the Wayans brothers (famous for dozens of TV shows and movies like "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood," 1996). Instead, we booted them out of town, which, in my opinion, ruined any real chance for industry transformation in the city. The metropolis is the engine that drives nations, economist June Jacobs tells us in "Cities, The Wealth of Nations," and that each metropolis has SOMETHING specific to offer. What exactly is Oakland’s offering?
San Francisco is the nation’s business center west of Chicago and the opening to the Pacific Rim; San Jose is Silicon Valley technology; what is Oakland? Its basically identity-less, offering perhaps as its two main saucy dishes music and pimping. Indeed, the pimp “academy awards,” aka “The Player’s Ball,” started here (NOTE: this traditional character should not be conflated with vicious modern pimps and the horrific abuse of underage women in Oakland). In fact, most people, including the 10’o clock news, would say that Oakland’s sole offering is crime. If that isn’t the case, what can we say is a definitive Oakland industry?
(left to right) Erinn Anova, who stars as the metaphorical 'Oakland,' make up artist Leesa Travis, director Mateen Kemet, and male star, Anthony Haynes. photo: Runaway Filmworx
Is Oakland the California Palermo or Lagos, both internationally known for criminal activity? But even those cities have rich histories that predate modern era criminality. The truth is, Oakland doesn’t really have one.
With some vision and effort, however, it could have been FILM! In the same way that Vancouver has turned itself into a 21st century cinema player, we would and could have the makings of Hollywood “North,” given the impact of having Pixar and Lucas. Add a modest live action and television studio via the Wayans brothers and all of sudden, voila! You have… industry.
Oakland had a chance, yet again after booting the Wayans, wtih the Hughes brothers ("American Pimp," doc, 1999, "The Book of Eli," action drama 2010). They came to town bearing gifts, this time a television show that would use the city’s most famous profession, “pimping,” to explore the humanity and socio-political structure of it, a la "The Wire," the ground-breaking television show set in Baltimore, which many have said is the best television show EVER!. Yet again, the city balked at tarnishing its perceived image rather than boldly forging a new one of creativity and self-examination. All those jobs and vendor contracts were lost, as well as having another chance to claim FILM as its industry.
Closing the Oakland Film Office, cutting arts funding, possibly closing down the Cultural Funding Program, and denying Hollywood players access provide further evidence that the powers that be don’t understand the powers that are—the arts and in the 21st century the MEDIA ARTS! Media is our lifeboat and the good ship “tomorrow” is at our shores: Are we going to let it pass? There are more artists here in Oakland than in any other city in the US, other than Brooklyn: Why not draw on that power, instead of strangling it to death?
It would simply be good business to put FILM at the forefront of a possible resurgence. It is an industry that employs many people per project, creates vendor business for heavy equipment and requires both technological and manual labor. In fact, the film industry represents one of the final frontiers of well-paying, unionized, blue- collar work for many positions (a potentially important avenue for a failing school district which is producing under-educated non-college bound youth.) Additionally, the product, by design, is exportable world-wide and, by definition, automatically markets the city in diverse ways—a boon for a city that is statistically the most diverse city in the nation.
Erinn Anova up on the Oakland International Airport's 'Media Wall,' where 'Oakland B Mine' shows. photo: Runaway Filmworx
Oakland just doesn’t get her potential. Yes, I know we need to fix schools and get more police but we also need a friggin’ native industry! FILM could be the ticket. I’m so tired of hearing about how Jack London Square is going to be this or that every 10 years but it continues to look basically the same. Have you been on Broadway on a Friday night? Not cool man. Why should a city with so much soul, so much swag, that is so fine… just languish?
Oakland needs to correct its image quickly. In my personal journey with “Oakland B Mine,” I’ve tried to do just that: sell Oakland to Oakland! But I’ve been met with surprisingly bankrupt results. I’ve got a project that screens on the 25-foot "Media Wall" at the Oakland International Airport, that will have over 10 million viewers this year, that features almost 50 Oakland locations and landmarks, that gives the city an amazing image highlighting the positives, and that makes it look and feel like a destination instead of a “hooded” appendage of San Francisco. And I can’t get the power brokers to bite—at all. Not one, not one penny.
I’ve talked to big wigs and small merchants alike; city government and average citizens. I’ve begged and borrowed to get this film in the can. I shot on 16mm film in a digital world because film just looks better, (especially for daylight exteriors) and I made the film with all the tender love and care that you would give to your main squeeze—all to no avail. Then, it finally hit me.
The problem with Oakland is that the people who benefit the most from her assets just do not care enough about her. The relationship is exploitive, almost colonial, in a sense. It’s the grassroots that care but they have no money. The city government, the movers and shakers, the hotel owners and the developers, the Fortune 500 corporations and the big medical facilities, the folks that MAKE MONEY off Oakland don’t really invest in her. They come to find good business opportunities and then bounce either up in the secluded hills or completely out of town. They just Do... Not... Care... about Oakland!
Thus, when I, as a resident and artist, come knocking on their door, they tell me how wonderful my project is, how it is much needed, how much they admire my diligence and production values, but ultimately, not a dime. Instead, the people who DO answer are… the people. It has been the grassroots, the small businesses, and the poorer Oaklanders, who, like me, just want to live in a beautiful city and who know what Oakland is at times and could be ALL the time. It is the people who have the least who have supported “Oakland B MIne” the most.
'Oakland B Mine' star, Anthony Haynes, doing a shot in Old Oakland. photo: Runaway Filmworx
The funny thing is, it should have been no surprise to see my love letter to Oakland casually dismissed in this lopsided relationship. The complacent business minds vs. the heart and soul of the people is the Oakland “pimp” motif at its most twisted and comically sad. Yes, Oakland IS… so many things, including the home of the pimp.
As Oakland moves into the second decade of the new millennium hard questions still linger... Is Oakland gonna wake up, take advantage of her uniqueness and get off the damned street to start working for herself ? Will the people of Oakland— the rank and file—rise up, Travis Bickle style and free our little Jody Foster from the cannibalized clutches of pimpdom—corporate, criminal or otherwise?
Does it matter if a caring filmmaker who loves her holds up the cinematic mirror, screaming “Oakland, sweetheart, look at how beautiful you are!!!” Will she ever look? Does she think she’s worth it? Will she ever, ever “just get it right”? I hope so. So much potential on the verge of waste. Yes indeed, Oakland is…
Originally from New York, director Mateen Kemet has long lived in Oakland while also working in LA. Posted on May 13, 2011 - 09:33 PM