Please contact us
with corrections
or breaking news
Oakland International is an Innovative Festival by Jerry McDaniel
The team from 'Futbolistas 4 Life', a documentary about a mostly undocumented team. photo courtesy OIFF
OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM
Festival is my favorite. Now in its 16th year, it ran from April 4th to 8th at Jack London Regal Theater, Holy Names University, the Grand Lake Theater and Jack London Regal, with many special events, especially given April 4th marked a half a century since the tragic assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Festival director David Roach and his team created an environment that feels hometown, inclusive, infectious, with 65 films out of Oakland, the Bay Area and abroad.
The festivals two biggest premieres were "Shot In The Dark", by Dustin Nakao Haid, about a basketball coach and his kids rising above the violence in Chicago, and "Marvin Booker Was Murdered", about a street preacher killed in the Denver Detention Center. But I felt I had to focus on Oakland offerings (story, director, content and such), which also turned out to be documentaries.
"Futbolistas 4 Life" follows a few Oakland high school kids who are and/or have parents who are undocumented, and tribulations and stresses they have to deal with as a result of this. Their soccer coach, an ex-Cal team player and pro, provides support and solace on and off the field. She ends up helping them acquire a grant to build a real soccer field on the school campus that can serve the whole community. Director Jun Stinson shows us a lot of moving moments as they win and lose with their friends and families.
"Surviving International Boulevard" uncovers the reality of child sex trafficking that goes on right here in Oakland’s Fruitvale district all day and all night. A lovely woman gives a teary-eyed break down of her own story and what brought her to the work she is doing now, running a local organization providing support and counseling to these effected boys as well as girls being pimped by their fathers, uncles, "lovers" and "friends."
Director Sian Taylor Gowan also takes us along as she follows a mother as she constantly waits and searchs the Boulevard for a daughter who is always running back to the streets. Intimate interviews and fuzzed out video of girls "for the mark" make this a deep and poignant piece.
One of the singers from 'Evolution Blues', Sugar Pie DeSanto. photo courtesy OIFF
Now we come to "Evolution Blues... West Oakland's Musical Legacy" directed by Cheryl Fabio, an Oakland native. This is a study of the hoppin' blues scene going on in West Oakland as a result of people, mostly black and from the South, immigrating here during the World War II to build those killer ships. Nice narration weaves together interviews with current and past luminaries of the music and culture (see cineSOURCE feature article).
A couple other shorts of note: "Strength and Fortune" is a story of an Oakland Muslim girl who is trying to find herself in the local rap community. As she comes up to face racial adversity in and out of "the scene," she confidently kicks some ass.
"Welcome to the Neighborhood" is the story of Mildred Howard, a Berkeley native and visual artist, who looses her home due to inequities and escalating housing costs that we all deal with in this day and age.
"The Equal Rights Initiative" puts a spotlight on the exorbitant mass incarceration rate that exists here in the "Land of the Brave", Berkeley director Gabriel Diamond doing a fine job.
I was a little disappointed that "Tamba" was so short, only about two minutes. About a young, homeless man in Oakland finding freedom in skateboarding, it was well shot and compelling, but I wanted more.
Hats off to OIFF! I wish I had more time to see everything.
Jerry McDaniel is an actor, musician and filmmaker, who starred in the breakout Oakland film ‘Everything Strange and New’ (2009) and can be reached {encode=" " title="here"}.