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Activist Comedy Explodes Out of Oakland
by Doniphan Blair
Oaklander Reyna Amaya, a professional comic and actress who has been hitting LA, on the set of the new web series, 'The North Pole', where she stars and scintillates. photo: courtesy J. HealeyIT MAKES NO SENSE: A HARD-HITTING
political comedy set in Oakland BUT which starts as a nature documentary. But then, as a white hipster pops out of the foliage and is identified as a “Golden State Gopher” by the three kids of color watching through binoculars, it vaguely seems logical.
By the time Nina, Marcus and Benny are posing for selfies with the hipsters they call “hyenas,” at one of the caffeine watering holes that have sprung up like mushrooms all over Oakland, it’s laugh-out-loud funny, see preview.
The satire suddenly comes full circle with a more exotic sighting: a female African-American called a “polar bear,” due to her threatened species status and that she lives in the once sketchy, but MUCH cheaper and homier, neighborhood of North Oakland, known to locals as "The North Pole."
It turns out that Marcus, an unemployed graphic designer played by surprising local talent Donte Clark, has had the hots for her since second grade. And when she shoots him down cold—in full black mama-ese, we realize we’re in a make-fun-of-everyone free-for-all.
A seven-episode web series due to premiere in June, “The North Pole” is one of the more ambitious projects this season out of Oakland or anywhere, given the current cultural climate and the difficulty of balancing comedy and politics. It succeeds through a rich mash-up of story lines, talented principals and an avalanche of cameos by known local artists and activists.
Donte Clark appeared in an interesting local doc and moved into acting in the feature 'Kicks' and 'The North Pole'. photo: courtesy J. HealeyDonte, who is making his comedic debut, was the charismatic young poet in an award-winning documentary about a poetry class and gang violence in the East Bay community of Richmond, “Romeo is Bleeding” (2015). He also appeared in “Kicks” (2016), the stylish, well-reviewed and theatrically-released feature, again set in Richmond.
Playing Nina is Oaklander Reyna Amaya, a professional comic who has been delivering her very funny, fast-talking standup to places like S.F.’s Punchline and a BET Weekend in L.A—check out her oddly untitled but masterful Amaya clip. Indeed, Reyna is making her way downstate as an actress, appearing on All Def Digital TV’s “Professor White” among other shows.
Rounding out the regulars as Benny is Santiago Rosas, an immigrant from Mexico by way of Arizona, who graduated from San Francisco’s well-known Meisner Technique (Acting) Studio, and Eli Marienthal, a Berkeley boy who came up as a child actor in “American Pie”, “Iron Giant” and other Hollywood films. Interestingly, considering “The North Pole” themes, Eli also co-directs Back to Earth, a program getting young men backpacking in the wilderness.
Eli’s Finn character enters the story after a rent raise by a rapacious landlord forces Nina to take a roommate. Indeed, her vigorous grilling of a host of typical twenty-something who have applied to be her roomie is very funny.
Santiago Rosas is Benny in the 'The North Pole' the vast cultural mixing that is Oakland. photo: courtesy J. Healey“If you are going to move into a new neighborhood, you have to have some basic knowledge of the place you are going to call home,” she berates one. Her first question to another: “When the Black Panthers were born in this neighborhood fifty years ago, what was their first campaign over on 55th and Market?" [Hint: It involves traffic signals.]
The sometimes clueless, as well as always white, Finn gets the nod after he actually answers one of Nina’s questions correctly. Plus, not only is he a friend of Benny, highlighting Oakland’s free association social networks, he works at a supposedly-green company, triggering the corporate corruption storyline.
The cameos are fantastic, ranging from famed former-Black Panther Ericka Huggins, who spoofs herself nicely while making some serious points, to comedian W. Kamau Bell, who just signed his second season at CNN, leading the aggressive road trip comedy “United Shades of America”.
Another cameo is hip-hop artist Mistah Fab, who was instrumental in Oakland’s Hyphy Movement and is considered the unofficial mayor of North Oakland. Bell and Fab appear at the riotous “roast,” which involves both humorous and actual barbequeing, which our crew attends in the suburbs, where Oaklanders have been forced to flee after being driven out of their native habitat.
The show’s fifth principal is renown local rapper and activist Boots Riley, who appears but can’t be seen, since he’s inside a fantastic polar bear outfit, on loan from Greenpeace to the series’ writer and producer Josh Healey. Fortunately, that doesn’t stop Riley from riffing hard and heavy in his patented, trash-talking, multi-adjectived, free-for-all style.
Perhaps even odder, Nina’s recurring dream of a talking polar bear nudges “The North Pole” from comedy and commentary to romantic parable, yet another theme the series must balance.
“I am always interested in the metaphor rooted in reality, but you can have fun with it,” Healey told me, when we met for coffee in North Oakland, along with the show’s co-star Reyna Amaya.
'North Pole' lead Reyna Amaya shows off the boots she was obliged to use to get to the interview in an El Niño storm. photo: D. Blair“Activism and art doesn’t always work together when it is didactic: Here is the answer to everything! Let me solve all your problems,” Healey continued. “What we are trying to do with this show is ask more questions then answers. What we are trying to do is look at the complexities and contradictions and the comedy of it all.”
It all started when he was telling the story to a good friend, who became an associate producer, Dania Cabello, and she said to me, “I have to go Josh, I am headed back to the North Pole.”
“I said, ‘You are going where?’ She said, ‘I have to go, back to the North Pole—peace.’”
"I am not from here and I didn’t know that phrase. She broke down the history. Folks who grew up here called themselves polar bears and talked about how the neighborhood is changing—the climate is changing, polar bears are going extinct and native species are getting pushed out. I got all these ideas and started writing.”
Another aspect to the show’s unique mix of elements is its executive producer: Movement Generation, a justice and ecology outfit out of downtown Oakland.
“Of the eight person team, I am the one person art department,” Healey explained. “Basically, my job is to do the fun shit to get people into the serious shit.”
He had been producing short informationals with director Yvan Iturriaga (PBS, “A Photographer’s Journey”) until, about a year-and-a-half ago, they decided to dive into the sometimes-seedy pool of web series—in a big way.
Indeed, “The North Pole” is fully professional production, with a budget of almost $100,000 from grants, existing funding and now a Kickstarter Campaign, although it also depended on old-school activist hustle and community support.
“I basically called my whole cell phone,” Healey said. “I’m glad people still return my calls because I was calling in favors for a year and half: ‘Can I get a location?’ ‘Can I get help with makeup?’”
The fact that “The North Pole” takes place in Oakland, which recently lost its film center and film office to budget cuts, is also fantastic. “A lot of my work is based in LA,” Amaya told me. “Being from the Bay Area, to find a project that actually was going to be filmed up here was amazing.”
Josh Healey and Reyna Amaya enjoy a great repartee during cineSOURCE's North Oakland interview. photo: D. Blair“At the end of the day, whether you are in Oakland or New Orleans or in D.C., our cities are under attack and the environment is under attack and it is overwhelming,” Healey concluded. “We are trying to parse through these issues on an everyday level,” in other words, comedy.
Although it could benefit from more naturalist pacing and more jokes during the stridency sections, if “The North Pole” keeps its principals cracking wise while tackling tough situations, as well as bringing in big local talent and just letting them riff, it could become a strong voice, not only for the diverse fauna of Oakland but for keeping ideals alive and fun in a confusing and contentious era.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached .
Posted on Apr 22, 2017 - 11:15 PM
by Doniphan Blair
Oaklander Reyna Amaya, a professional comic and actress who has been hitting LA, on the set of the new web series, 'The North Pole', where she stars and scintillates. photo: courtesy J. Healeypolitical comedy set in Oakland BUT which starts as a nature documentary. But then, as a white hipster pops out of the foliage and is identified as a “Golden State Gopher” by the three kids of color watching through binoculars, it vaguely seems logical.
By the time Nina, Marcus and Benny are posing for selfies with the hipsters they call “hyenas,” at one of the caffeine watering holes that have sprung up like mushrooms all over Oakland, it’s laugh-out-loud funny, see preview.
The satire suddenly comes full circle with a more exotic sighting: a female African-American called a “polar bear,” due to her threatened species status and that she lives in the once sketchy, but MUCH cheaper and homier, neighborhood of North Oakland, known to locals as "The North Pole."
It turns out that Marcus, an unemployed graphic designer played by surprising local talent Donte Clark, has had the hots for her since second grade. And when she shoots him down cold—in full black mama-ese, we realize we’re in a make-fun-of-everyone free-for-all.
A seven-episode web series due to premiere in June, “The North Pole” is one of the more ambitious projects this season out of Oakland or anywhere, given the current cultural climate and the difficulty of balancing comedy and politics. It succeeds through a rich mash-up of story lines, talented principals and an avalanche of cameos by known local artists and activists.
Donte Clark appeared in an interesting local doc and moved into acting in the feature 'Kicks' and 'The North Pole'. photo: courtesy J. HealeyPlaying Nina is Oaklander Reyna Amaya, a professional comic who has been delivering her very funny, fast-talking standup to places like S.F.’s Punchline and a BET Weekend in L.A—check out her oddly untitled but masterful Amaya clip. Indeed, Reyna is making her way downstate as an actress, appearing on All Def Digital TV’s “Professor White” among other shows.
Rounding out the regulars as Benny is Santiago Rosas, an immigrant from Mexico by way of Arizona, who graduated from San Francisco’s well-known Meisner Technique (Acting) Studio, and Eli Marienthal, a Berkeley boy who came up as a child actor in “American Pie”, “Iron Giant” and other Hollywood films. Interestingly, considering “The North Pole” themes, Eli also co-directs Back to Earth, a program getting young men backpacking in the wilderness.
Eli’s Finn character enters the story after a rent raise by a rapacious landlord forces Nina to take a roommate. Indeed, her vigorous grilling of a host of typical twenty-something who have applied to be her roomie is very funny.
Santiago Rosas is Benny in the 'The North Pole' the vast cultural mixing that is Oakland. photo: courtesy J. HealeyThe sometimes clueless, as well as always white, Finn gets the nod after he actually answers one of Nina’s questions correctly. Plus, not only is he a friend of Benny, highlighting Oakland’s free association social networks, he works at a supposedly-green company, triggering the corporate corruption storyline.
The cameos are fantastic, ranging from famed former-Black Panther Ericka Huggins, who spoofs herself nicely while making some serious points, to comedian W. Kamau Bell, who just signed his second season at CNN, leading the aggressive road trip comedy “United Shades of America”.
Another cameo is hip-hop artist Mistah Fab, who was instrumental in Oakland’s Hyphy Movement and is considered the unofficial mayor of North Oakland. Bell and Fab appear at the riotous “roast,” which involves both humorous and actual barbequeing, which our crew attends in the suburbs, where Oaklanders have been forced to flee after being driven out of their native habitat.
The show’s fifth principal is renown local rapper and activist Boots Riley, who appears but can’t be seen, since he’s inside a fantastic polar bear outfit, on loan from Greenpeace to the series’ writer and producer Josh Healey. Fortunately, that doesn’t stop Riley from riffing hard and heavy in his patented, trash-talking, multi-adjectived, free-for-all style.
Perhaps even odder, Nina’s recurring dream of a talking polar bear nudges “The North Pole” from comedy and commentary to romantic parable, yet another theme the series must balance.
“I am always interested in the metaphor rooted in reality, but you can have fun with it,” Healey told me, when we met for coffee in North Oakland, along with the show’s co-star Reyna Amaya.
'North Pole' lead Reyna Amaya shows off the boots she was obliged to use to get to the interview in an El Niño storm. photo: D. BlairIt all started when he was telling the story to a good friend, who became an associate producer, Dania Cabello, and she said to me, “I have to go Josh, I am headed back to the North Pole.”
“I said, ‘You are going where?’ She said, ‘I have to go, back to the North Pole—peace.’”
"I am not from here and I didn’t know that phrase. She broke down the history. Folks who grew up here called themselves polar bears and talked about how the neighborhood is changing—the climate is changing, polar bears are going extinct and native species are getting pushed out. I got all these ideas and started writing.”
Another aspect to the show’s unique mix of elements is its executive producer: Movement Generation, a justice and ecology outfit out of downtown Oakland.
“Of the eight person team, I am the one person art department,” Healey explained. “Basically, my job is to do the fun shit to get people into the serious shit.”
He had been producing short informationals with director Yvan Iturriaga (PBS, “A Photographer’s Journey”) until, about a year-and-a-half ago, they decided to dive into the sometimes-seedy pool of web series—in a big way.
Indeed, “The North Pole” is fully professional production, with a budget of almost $100,000 from grants, existing funding and now a Kickstarter Campaign, although it also depended on old-school activist hustle and community support.
“I basically called my whole cell phone,” Healey said. “I’m glad people still return my calls because I was calling in favors for a year and half: ‘Can I get a location?’ ‘Can I get help with makeup?’”
The fact that “The North Pole” takes place in Oakland, which recently lost its film center and film office to budget cuts, is also fantastic. “A lot of my work is based in LA,” Amaya told me. “Being from the Bay Area, to find a project that actually was going to be filmed up here was amazing.”
Josh Healey and Reyna Amaya enjoy a great repartee during cineSOURCE's North Oakland interview. photo: D. BlairAlthough it could benefit from more naturalist pacing and more jokes during the stridency sections, if “The North Pole” keeps its principals cracking wise while tackling tough situations, as well as bringing in big local talent and just letting them riff, it could become a strong voice, not only for the diverse fauna of Oakland but for keeping ideals alive and fun in a confusing and contentious era.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached .
Posted on Apr 22, 2017 - 11:15 PM
