It’s a Bay Area Film Night, For Real For Real

On Wednesday night, Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater will play host to Bay Area Film Night, an event that features a panel discussion and a screening of two short films that are truly from the soil.

Behind the films What’chu Mixed With? and I Thought You’d Never Ask there’s a slate of actors, producers and directors, as well as extras and notable venues, that are all local. And the stories depicted in the movies are stitched together with the fibers that make up this region’s unique cultural cloth.

The event falls in line with the theater’s dedication to highlighting local filmmakers — Wednesday’s film night is all about bringing more local representation to the big screen and fueling a growing Bay Area film industry.

What’chu Mixed With? stars Jasmin Corley as a San Francisco mixed-race teenager named Alexis. Struggling to find herself after her father leaves the family, the main character’s identity issues hit an apex as she has a bit of a breakdown while trying to manage her curly hair. Her mother, a white woman with flowing straight hair, has no idea what to do either.

Luckily, Alexis’ mother is a teacher in Hunters Point and a student in her class named Precious is one of the coolest young women on the block.

“We’ve been deprived,” says Cameron-Gordon about the need for local film events like this. The Bay Area has so much talent, she says, but it doesn’t get recognized nearly as much as other regions.

“A lot of times we see films that are set in Los Angeles. We see ’em in New York, but we have such a unique culture,” Cameron-Gordon attests. “And we have some characters that definitely need to be on the screen, people that the world needs to see.”

That sentiment is echoed by Jamal Trulove, who co-organized the event with Domonique Fines and wrote the night’s second film, I Thought You’d Never Ask.

Inspired by a dream he had while attending the Sundance Film Festival in 2024, Trulove set out to write a piece that explores the idea of a woman facing the “biological clock” and a man eager to find the right one to settle down with.

With insight from lived experiences as well as his production team, he ended up with a sweet love story. The film deals with the pressure of having a baby by a certain age, finding someone to marry and the issue of divorce rates in the Black community.

“The concept of it was to create a conversation about love, marriage, and the reasons why things fall apart,” says Trulove. Another goal was to infuse the film with “our culture.”

A very universal story about love, timing and communication between intimate partners, the film has a distinguished Bay Area flavor. It stars Oakland’s Keren Southall as Lisa and Titus VanHook as Nathan. They’re joined on screen by a chorus of Bay Area faces, including Tia Nomore and Devin “Sauce” Davis.

After his role as Kofi in the film The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Trulove understood the power of giving screen time to local folks.

“Everybody wants to get into this field,” says Trulove, noting how a lack of resources and know-how impedes a lot of folks’ big-screen dreams.

But having a nucleus of talent, community support and the backing of local establishments makes the dream more attainable. “People can identify with it,” he says of the local connections shown in the films. “And that’s what it comes down to.”

Another key component of what’s needed for filmmakers is sustainability, Trulove says. Referencing the rich history of independent musicians making it in the Bay, he imagines the same direct-to-audience approach could be used for filmmakers.

“There’s so many Bay Area stories that are untold,” he says. And when our stories are told, he laments, too often we’re not the ones telling them. His question: What if we created conversation pieces about people really born and raised in the Bay?

“At the same time,” Trulove says about his vision for the local film industry, “we need to celebrate us.”