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The Do List

A New, Year-Long Black Film Series Just Launched in Oakland

In addition to movie screenings, ‘Black Film: Unscreened & Unstreamed’ includes discussions and workshops.
Rae Alexandra
A young Black man with shoulder length dreadlocks stands in the street, looking concerned. He is wearing a grey hoodie.
A moment from Ryan Coogler’s 2009 short film, ‘Locks.’

Early short films by Barry Jenkins and Ryan Coogler will be screening in Oakland in September, thanks to a new, year-long film series presented by the Sarah Webster Fabio Center for Social Justice.

Black Film: Unscreened & Unstreamed is co-curated by Oakland filmmakers Cheryl Fabio and Rae Shaw, along with Cornelius Moore, the co-director of California Newsreel. Screenings through the end of 2025 will take place on Thursdays in the first floor gallery of Oakstop, the co-working and event space in downtown Oakland. Every event will be accompanied by discussion and analysis from hosts and a variety of guests.

Each evening’s selections will fall under a particular theme. Jenkins’ Remigration and Coogler’s Locks will be showing on Sept. 11 as part of an evening titled “Summoning Justice.” The other films on the bill are Niema Jordan’s Labor and Jessica Jones’ On the Pulse of Life.

A Black woman with cropped hair leans on a railing, while holding a brown leather bound book. She is wearing a peasant dress.
A moment from Niema Jordan’s ‘Labor,’ filmed at Lake Merritt. (The Center For Cultural Power)

Rae Shaw’s own exhilarating Black Kung Fu Chick will screen during a night honoring the theme “Growing Into Strength” in October. The short film is about a teenage girl chasing her academic dreams while under the tutelage of her high school science teacher … who also happens to be a martial arts master. That same night, Bottled Spirits — Elizabeth Carter and Cat Brooks’ creative exploration of West Oakland gentrification — will also play.

Full-length features on the 2025 schedule include documentaries like the much-lauded Daughters, about father-daughter relationships under the constraints of incarceration, and Uzikee, a profile of Washington, D.C. sculptor Uzikee Nelson. (The latter was directed by Nelson’s nephew Doug Harris, who is from Berkeley.) A December event dedicated to Oakland’s musical legacy will screen Fantastic Negrito: Have Your Lost Your Mind Yet?, a documentary about the Grammy-winning blues visionary.

Black Film: Unscreened & Unstreamed kicked off Aug. 14 with screenings of two of Nijla Mu’min’s films, broadcasting the series’ focus on Black culture and local filmmaking. “We lean into Oakland-specific filmmakers in the first half of this year-long series,” explains Cheryl Fabio in the program’s press release. “Oakland’s Black community remains the focus of the entire selection process.”

In addition to the upcoming movie screenings, workshops will be held to encourage and inspire new Bay Area filmmakers. Rae Shaw is hosting a screenwriting workshop on Aug. 28; on Sept. 25, Sareeta Young and CB Smith-Dahl will be hitting Lake Merritt to teach participants the best ways to make movies on their cell phones.

Dates and details about the full ‘Black Film: Unscreened & Unstreamed’ roster can be found at the Sarah Webster Fabio Center for Social Justice’s website. Admission to all programs is free, but an RSVP is required.

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