Oakland Is the Heartbeat of LaTajh Simmons-Weaver’s Cinematic Universe

When LaTajh Simmons-Weaver was a kid, their stoop was their front-row seat to the dramas of their North Oakland neighborhood. “My grandma would call it people watching,” they say. “I’ve always been very intrigued by the way people move through the world.”

They didn’t realize it back then, but they were honing what would later become their signature style as a filmmaker: quiet scenes where the audience becomes a fly on the wall, absorbing the characters’ facial expressions as they enter their emotional world.

Simmons-Weaver’s new short film Budget Paradise debuts at the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 26. It follows a Black nonbinary painter named Chester as they roam through Oakland, facing rejection after rejection as they look for a quiet place to paint. It’s in those still moments that viewers connect to Chester’s yearning for creative freedom, their tender affection for a painting subject and their frustration at feeling like a stranger in their gentrifying hometown.

“I feel the artists are trying to keep up with what Oakland has become,” Simmons-Weaver reflects. “This city has become bigger than what we could have ever imagined, and we gotta find our place in it now.”

Like Chester, Simmons-Weaver has faced their fair share of obstacles on their creative path. Their recent filmmaking success is the product of a relentless grind that began over a decade ago, when they started working as a production assistant — a notoriously low-paid, grueling role on set — while writing their own scripts on the side. After their last PA gig in 2017 on Boots Riley’s bizarro anti-capitalist thriller Sorry to Bother You, Simmons-Weaver decided, despite their nerves and imposter syndrome, that it was time to step into the role of director.

Taking a chance on themself paid off. In 2023, their quirky short film Companion, about the special yet strange ways cats love their humans, made it into Philadelphia’s BlackStar Film Festival and a handful of others around the country. That same year, they became an SFFILM FilmHouse Resident. They were also a producer on Savannah Leaf’s BAFTA Award-winning film Earth Mama, starring Oakland rapper-turned-actress Tia Nomore as a young mother in danger of losing custody of her kids.

Just a few months after Earth Mama premiered, Boots Riley once again made waves with I’m a Virgo, his Oakland-set, satirical sci-fi series about a 13-foot-tall man and his crew of friends who face off against a crime-fighting “hero” who isn’t what he seems. Simmons-Weaver’s connection to the show came about in an unexpected way. After Riley stopped them on the street to compliment their fashion and take their photo, their nonbinary swag became Riley’s inspiration for Jones, the queer character who rallies the masses against corrupt corporate forces.

After working behind the scenes on so many projects that have put Oakland cinema on the map, Simmons-Weaver is now making their mark as a filmmaker on the rise. Hold Me Close, a short documentary they co-directed with their partner, Aurora Brachman, premiered at Sundance this year. The gorgeously slow-paced film offers an intimate look into the home life of a queer, Black couple, Corrine and Tiana, as they navigate starting a family, explaining their identities to their parents and figuring out how to feel safe in the world.

GLAAD praised the film for its nuanced depiction of Black, queer love. “I’m just interested in telling the different ways in which you could be Black and queer,” says Simmons-Weaver. “I think there’s just a mainstream queer story of coming out or getting a crush, but there’s so much more.”

Another new short documentary that Brachman directed and Simmons-Weaver produced, when the revolution doesn’t come, follows several adult children of Black Panther activists. They grapple with the complicated experience of having parents who sacrificed their lives to a revolutionary cause.

Oakland’s unique culture — the activism, the artistry, but also the occasional element of danger — continues to inspire Simmons-Weaver, even though they, Brachman and their three cats have relocated to Los Angeles.

“I am truly dedicated to always making my films in Oakland,” they say. “Oakland is such a cool place, but it’s so weird. … There’s the violent side. There’s the artsy side. And it’s not big enough for those things to be separate. … It could really pop off at any time, which is scary, but it’s also so fun that you’re like, ‘I’ma risk it for the party.’”

Up next, Simmons-Weaver is working on their most ambitious project yet, a narrative feature called No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds: A Queer Inclusive Memoir. It takes on the drama of the Oakland queer scene and how its radical politics can sometimes feed into cancel culture. The main character, Silas, designs escape rooms to pay their rent.

To develop the script, Simmons-Weaver received a prestigious SFFILM Rainin Grant, which has supported projects like Sean Wang’s Fremont-set film about adolescence, Dìdi; Joe Talbot’s meditation on gentrification, The Last Black Man in San Francisco; and Ryan Coogler’s biopic of Oscar Grant, Fruitvale Station. With the Bay Area’s growing reputation as a powerhouse of thoughtful, left-of-center cinema, Simmons-Weaver is well poised to add their contribution to the region’s growing filmography.

“It makes it feel like all the hard work is paying off,” Simmons-Weaver says. “[To go from] doing it with no money — like none, like zero, like negative money — and then just having people be like, ‘Oh yeah, we see what you’re doing, let me support you in this way.’ It’s just — man, I’m speechless about it.”

LaTajh Simmons-Weaver’s ‘Budget Paradise’ screens April 26 at Marina Theatre as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. Tickets and details here.