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The Do List

A Groundbreaking Black Filmmaker Kicks Off New Artist-in-Residence Screenings

Robert Townsend hosts nine screenings in San Francisco, including his bold satire ‘Hollywood Shuffle.’
Gabe Meline
Two young Black men sit in an otherwise empty movie theater, both showing a thumbs-down hand signal
(L–R) Jimmy Woodard and Robert Townsend portray Siskel-and-Ebert-like film critics during one of many satirical vignettes in Townsend’s 1987 film ‘Hollywood Shuffle.’ (The Samuel Goldwyn Company)

A hot dog stand isn’t where one typically finds a lesson in Black film history. Recent visitors to Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, however, have taken note of the business that’s replaced the long-empty Kasper’s hot dog shack on 46th and Telegraph: Winky Dinky Dogs.

To the uninitiated, the curious name might make little sense. But if you’ve seen Robert Townsend’s 1987 satire Hollywood Shuffle, which screens Aug. 5 at the Balboa Theater, you’ll recognize it as a reference to one of the most original and biting critiques of Hollywood’s racist machinations and depictions of Black stories on screen.

Townsend will present Hollywood Shuffle, in person, to kick off the Balboa and 4-Star Theaters’ first-ever artist in residence series. Encompassing nine films, four directed by and starring the filmmaker, the run includes Townsend’s introductions and post-screening Q&As with actors and directors like Boots Riley, Carl Franklin and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs.

James Earl Jones, Diahann Carroll and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs star in ‘Claudine’ (1974), which provided an alternative to the Blaxploitation wave of the 1970s.

Jim Crow meets the Civil Rights era in the Aug. 6 pairing of The Great White Hope (1970), about boxer Jack Johnson, with In the Heat of the Night (1967), about a Mississippi murder investigation. Blaxploitation — in both the music industry and in film — are addressed directly and indirectly on Aug. 8, with The Five Heartbeats (1991) and Claudine (1974).

And for a primer on how a major global power can be convinced to elect a reality TV star with no political experience as its president, Aug. 7 brings a timely twosome on media manipulation with A Face in the Crowd (1957) and Network (1976).

Closing with Townsend’s own 1990s films B*A*P*S* and The Meteor Man, the series is the first in what theater owners plan as an ongoing program, with future filmmakers curating and hosting. If a recent one-off screening with director Carl Franklin of Devil in a Blue Dress is any indication, they’re also sure to be well-attended; getting there early is advised.

Robert Townsend hosts special screenings of his own films, plus his curated picks, Aug. 5–9 at the Balboa and 4-Star Theaters in San Francisco. Program details and screening times here. 

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