An All-Star Movie Night at the Grand Lake Theatre

As NBA superstars descend upon the region for All-Star Weekend, the stories of some of the Town’s top hip-hop talents will be on display in the East Bay.

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, complete with a red-carpet entry, Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre will host The Black Film Connect’s All-Star Movie Night. With an informative panel discussion and a live afterparty at Oakland’s Root’d In The 510 venue, the event serves as a high-energy kickoff to NBA All-Star weekend.

“Oakland is in a film renaissance right now,” says Seretse Njemanze, co-founder of The Black Film Connect. As evidence, he cites I’m a Virgo and Blindspotting, and other films in production, while praising local filmmakers for doing “the work.”

Njemanze wants to make sure that work is seen by a broad audience.

Wednesday’s event begins with a red-carpet walk followed by a panel discussion with artists, creatives and representatives from the East Bay Film Collective’s #MakeItBay platform on the current state of the Bay Area’s film industry.

Njemanze, the director of See It Thru: The Jacka Documentary — a forthcoming docu-series on late East Bay rapper The Jacka — will show a teaser from his latest production. That will be paired with a trailer for Pay The Producer, a film directed by The Mekanix. Plus attendees will get a glimpse of a film about beloved West Oakland rapper J. Stalin and his music label, it’s titled Cypress: The Livewire Story.

The evening also features the short film Sweet Santa Barbara Brown, based on the true 1983 story of African American Harlem Globetrotter basketball players being racially profiled by police in the beach town of Santa Barabra.

After the two-hour film block, a 20-minute Q&A with the participating filmmakers takes place. Then the festivities skip across town to Root’d In The 510 for a performance by StunnaMan02 and perfomance sets from The Mekanix and DJ Tourè of Hieroglyphics.

The event continues the work of The Black Film Connect since its founding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the group held a COVID-safe movie screening outside. Ever since, the group has held social events where filmmakers congregate and discuss projects, the industry and employment opportunities.

The Black Film Connect has also focused on increasing inclusion on Bay Area film sets. “We staffed a lot of the positions,” says Njemanze, rattling off occupations such as location department and production assistant, examples of the types of gigs people have been connected with on local productions.

“We’ve even done feature films in-house,” Njemanze says, in reference to the Jesse Kuba-directed 2024 film The Moon is in Aquarius.

Njemanze, a 30 year-old who spent most his life between Oakland and the South Bay, surveys the Bay Area and sees a “cultural explosion” happening amidst the All-Star Movie Night. “And that’s what we want to show our audience,” he says.

The Black Film Connect’s All-Star Movie Night takes place on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theatre. Tickets and details here.