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"title": "Olivia Wilde Shines in Playful BDSM Comedy ‘I Want Your Sex’",
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"content": "\u003cp>Erika Tracy, the artist and provocateur at the heart of \u003cem>I Want Your Sex\u003c/em>, may be the most quotable fictional female executive since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13989024/the-devil-wears-prada-sequel-review-stanley-tucci-meryl-streep-anne-hathaway\">Miranda Priestly\u003c/a> “that’s all-ed” her way into film history.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Yes, sure, it is a little strange to compare a very buttoned-up character in a mass-audience, PG-13-rated movie with one in a very R-rated movie who is often topless, in bondage or toting a sex object around as an accessory. But like Miranda, Erika, brought to vibrant life by Olivia Wilde, has a withering glare, a commanding presence and killer timing. In fact, it is difficult to imagine anyone else in the role — nor would you want to.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This playfully provocative comedy about sex and generational divides from New Queer Cinema pioneer Gregg Araki (in theaters Friday), really lives and dies on the plausibility of Erika Tracy. She could have very easily just been an eccentric cartoon. While \u003cem>I Want Your Sex\u003c/em> takes nothing terribly seriously, you do have to buy the many outrageous things she says, and to care a bit about how and why she ends up floating naked, unconscious, face-down and likely dead, in her pool. If you are going to reference \u003cem>Sunset Boulevard\u003c/em> you might as well go big, right?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjkTmTmC1iA\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The noirish mystery propelling the narrative isn’t even really the point. Instead, Araki, who shares writing credits with Karley Sciortino, wants to talk about sex and the well-documented lack thereof among members of Generation Z. But, you know, in a sharp, humorous and outlandish way.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the spirit of going big, this is a movie that takes on Gen Z’s crisis of intimacy in the wildest and most inappropriate of ways: a sex-only, dom-sub relationship between an employer and her younger employee Elliot, played by Cooper Hoffman. It was all consensual, he stresses over and over again to the detectives (Johnny Knoxville and Margaret Cho) interviewing him. But it does also kind of ruin his life, at least for a little bit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliot is quite awkward, perhaps the least likely candidate for someone like Erika to hand-select for this anything-but-straightforward arrangement. He lives with his best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) and has a girlfriend, Minerva (Charli xcx).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1081\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-2000x1081.jpg\" alt=\"a woman wearing glasses reads a book in bed while her boyfriend looks at him\" class=\"wp-image-13992203\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-2000x1081.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-160x86.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-768x415.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-1536x830.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-2048x1107.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Charli xcx and Cooper Hoffman in ‘I Want Your Sex.’ (Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But no one seems to be having sex. When Elliot proposes a little celebration after scoring the job at Erika’s gallery, Minerva complains that they just did it 11 days ago.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But his imagination is active and, soon, with Erika, the fantasies become real. Of course, it is only a matter of time before things get messy — there’s blood, tears, betrayal and maybe even murder. It is also self-consciously garish, an over-the-top satire of the art world and the personalities who encompass it, but the world is never not compelling, with fun supporting performances from the likes of Daveed Diggs and Mason Gooding. Wonders is also terrific, a ball of neuroses and repression, envious of Elliot’s exploits.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’m not sure it reaches any profound conclusion about its topic, nor is it really trying to.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Sex is everything,” Erika says. “It’s also nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Perhaps it’s just trying to remind everyone to lighten up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it is a terrific platform for Wilde, who as an actor Hollywood never quite knew how to use properly. Often, the movies just wanted her to be hot, ignoring her obvious intelligence and comedic prowess. Araki’s film figures out how to use all her qualities in wildly entertaining fashion. It would make a natural double feature with her own directorial effort, \u003cem>The Invite\u003c/em>, which adds to the modern sex conversation but also shows another side to her talents and range. Wilde, it turns out, is a world-class comedienne who is, two decades into her career, coming into her own.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘I Want Your Sex’ is released nationwide on July 31, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But his imagination is active and, soon, with Erika, the fantasies become real. Of course, it is only a matter of time before things get messy — there’s blood, tears, betrayal and maybe even murder. It is also self-consciously garish, an over-the-top satire of the art world and the personalities who encompass it, but the world is never not compelling, with fun supporting performances from the likes of Daveed Diggs and Mason Gooding. Wonders is also terrific, a ball of neuroses and repression, envious of Elliot’s exploits.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But it is a terrific platform for Wilde, who as an actor Hollywood never quite knew how to use properly. Often, the movies just wanted her to be hot, ignoring her obvious intelligence and comedic prowess. Araki’s film figures out how to use all her qualities in wildly entertaining fashion. It would make a natural double feature with her own directorial effort, \u003cem>The Invite\u003c/em>, which adds to the modern sex conversation but also shows another side to her talents and range. Wilde, it turns out, is a world-class comedienne who is, two decades into her career, coming into her own.\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elliot is quite awkward, perhaps the least likely candidate for someone like Erika to hand-select for this anything-but-straightforward arrangement. He lives with his best friend Apple (Chase Sui Wonders) and has a girlfriend, Minerva (Charli xcx).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1081\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-2000x1081.jpg\" alt=\"a woman wearing glasses reads a book in bed while her boyfriend looks at him\" class=\"wp-image-13992203\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-2000x1081.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-160x86.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-768x415.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-1536x830.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/5-48-2048x1107.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Charli xcx and Cooper Hoffman in ‘I Want Your Sex.’ (Magnolia Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>But no one seems to be having sex. When Elliot proposes a little celebration after scoring the job at Erika’s gallery, Minerva complains that they just did it 11 days ago.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But his imagination is active and, soon, with Erika, the fantasies become real. Of course, it is only a matter of time before things get messy — there’s blood, tears, betrayal and maybe even murder. It is also self-consciously garish, an over-the-top satire of the art world and the personalities who encompass it, but the world is never not compelling, with fun supporting performances from the likes of Daveed Diggs and Mason Gooding. Wonders is also terrific, a ball of neuroses and repression, envious of Elliot’s exploits.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’m not sure it reaches any profound conclusion about its topic, nor is it really trying to.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Sex is everything,” Erika says. “It’s also nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Perhaps it’s just trying to remind everyone to lighten up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it is a terrific platform for Wilde, who as an actor Hollywood never quite knew how to use properly. Often, the movies just wanted her to be hot, ignoring her obvious intelligence and comedic prowess. Araki’s film figures out how to use all her qualities in wildly entertaining fashion. It would make a natural double feature with her own directorial effort, \u003cem>The Invite\u003c/em>, which adds to the modern sex conversation but also shows another side to her talents and range. Wilde, it turns out, is a world-class comedienne who is, two decades into her career, coming into her own.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘I Want Your Sex’ is released nationwide on July 31, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Thrills and Spills Highlight the Cursed Mediterranean Cruise of ‘The Odyssey’",
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"content": "\u003cp>Classic-rock fans know by heart the ’60s super-group Blind Faith’s \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/gm7JmCSymy4?si=LJ7E6W7MPjeee2eK\">most enduring song\u003c/a>: “Come down off your throne and leave your body alone/Somebody must change/You are the reason I’ve been waiting so long/Somebody holds the key.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I don’t think Steve Winwood had the separated King Odysseus and Queen Penelope of ancient Ithaca in mind when he wrote \u003cem>Can’t Find My Way Home\u003c/em>. Nonetheless, one of writer-director Christopher Nolan’s inescapable and unsolvable challenges in adapting \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.odysseymovie.com/\">The Odyssey\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (opening Friday, July 17) is that Homer’s touchstone myths, foundational themes and indelible set pieces have inspired countless contemporary works of art and are embedded and assimilated into our stories and vocabulary.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nolan (\u003cem>Inception\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Oppenheimer\u003c/em>) is probably the best person this side of Ridley Scott to devise a three-hour, mammoth-budget commercial movie with artistic, literary and intellectual filigrees. He is adept at working on a big canvas, though I’ve never understood how a pop philosopher attained a reputation as a director of profound ideas.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Like so much of Nolan’s oeuvre, \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> is a grand-scale, masculine action-adventure bow-tied with frilly robes of Hallmark-card philosophy. The filmmaker’s ability to thrust audiences into the center of chaotic battles and frenetic dangers — abetted, as always, by a crammed (Oscar, can you hear me?) sound design turbocharged at climactic moments by a drums-and-bass assault — carries the day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000.jpg\" alt=\"soldiers fight in front of burning ancient city\" class=\"wp-image-13991708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A scene from Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Perhaps inevitably, the movie’s power is undercut by the many expository dialogue scenes. They aren’t boring, exactly, but matinee stars of limited range (Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya) delivering lines devoid of poetry does not make for emotionally involved audiences.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, if you have any interest at all in \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em>, see it now on the biggest screen you can. You will be rewarded with immersion in the spectacle and the scenery. However, if you are indifferent, I encourage you to respect Nolan’s formidable undertaking by avoiding the TV-size streaming and DVD formats down the road.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nolan’s \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> is largely structured as a series of flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks) recounted by the shipwrecked Odysseus to the ageless Calypso (Charlize Theron) seven years after his army invaded and defeated Troy. The poor guy just wants to get back to his wife and dog, but the gods have arrayed a litany of life-threatening obstacles (Cyclops, Circe, Sirens) for Odysseus and his ever-dwindling battalion of ocean-traveling soldier-sailors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman in blue robe and younger man stand looking out from parapet to distance\" class=\"wp-image-13991709\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Anne Hathaway is Penelope and Tom Holland is Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Odysseus possesses supreme confidence but dubious decision-making ability; alas, Nolan and Damon portray him as a relentlessly heroic figure — tailor-made for audience identification — rather than a man of bottomless hubris who has brought his fate (and his men’s) upon himself, with a little assistance from the gods.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, back at the palace, the queen and her son Telemachus (a doughy Tom Holland) debate the dim possibility that the king still draws breath after so many years without a sighting. The dining room overflows with suitors for the queen’s hand and the king’s crown, with the pack headed by Antinous (Robert Pattinson, resembling a young, lean and hungry Dylan McDermott).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Late in the proceedings, after so much horror and death puts Odysseus in a reflective mood, Nolan finally shows us the horrific impact of war on Troy’s civilians. The suffering of these anonymous people is a catalyst for Odysseus’ awakening to the cost of his ego and ambition. In Happy Ending Hollywood, the director wants us to take strength along with that warning, so he reminds us yet again of the merits of sacrifice, loyalty and perseverance during the final stage of Odysseus’ return.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man in robe with full beard looks worried\" class=\"wp-image-13991710\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Matt Damon as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> isn’t sufficiently rich and wise enough to accommodate more than a couple jokes (unlike your blasphemous critic), nor is it anywhere near dull or bad enough to invite you to whisper wisecracks in your neighbor’s ear. Only afterward, when I was thinking about Jack Kerouac’s \u003cem>On the Road\u003c/em> as well as the extensive, irresistible subgenre of road movies, did it dawn on me that in \u003cem>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas\u003c/em>, the protagonist (aka Hunter S. Thompson) receives his visions from the gods via acid and speed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I invite you to come up with your own modern-day reference points during or after \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em>. There’s the Coen Brothers’ \u003cem>O Brother, Where Art Thou\u003c/em>, of course, and Joseph Conrad’s \u003cem>Heart of Darkness\u003c/em> as reimagined by Francis Ford Coppola as \u003cem>Apocalypse Now\u003c/em>. Telemachus’ impatience, for that matter, may remind you of another stubborn son, \u003cem>Dune\u003c/em>’s Paul Atreides.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I do wish that Nolan had had the wit and whimsy to play Blind Faith (“I’m wasted and I can’t find my way home”) over the end credits. Or, swapping British yearning for Southern California wistfulness, Steely Dan’s \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/0Mv-zD9s58w?si=tpAn6ttMD9mjbNNk\">jazz-pop soliloquy\u003c/a>: “Well, the danger on the rocks is surely passed/Still I remain tied to the mast/Could it be that I have found my home at last/Home at last.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Odyssey’ opens in theaters July 17.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I don’t think Steve Winwood had the separated King Odysseus and Queen Penelope of ancient Ithaca in mind when he wrote \u003cem>Can’t Find My Way Home\u003c/em>. Nonetheless, one of writer-director Christopher Nolan’s inescapable and unsolvable challenges in adapting \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.odysseymovie.com/\">The Odyssey\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (opening Friday, July 17) is that Homer’s touchstone myths, foundational themes and indelible set pieces have inspired countless contemporary works of art and are embedded and assimilated into our stories and vocabulary.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nolan (\u003cem>Inception\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Oppenheimer\u003c/em>) is probably the best person this side of Ridley Scott to devise a three-hour, mammoth-budget commercial movie with artistic, literary and intellectual filigrees. He is adept at working on a big canvas, though I’ve never understood how a pop philosopher attained a reputation as a director of profound ideas.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Like so much of Nolan’s oeuvre, \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> is a grand-scale, masculine action-adventure bow-tied with frilly robes of Hallmark-card philosophy. The filmmaker’s ability to thrust audiences into the center of chaotic battles and frenetic dangers — abetted, as always, by a crammed (Oscar, can you hear me?) sound design turbocharged at climactic moments by a drums-and-bass assault — carries the day.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000.jpg\" alt=\"soldiers fight in front of burning ancient city\" class=\"wp-image-13991708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A scene from Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Perhaps inevitably, the movie’s power is undercut by the many expository dialogue scenes. They aren’t boring, exactly, but matinee stars of limited range (Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya) delivering lines devoid of poetry does not make for emotionally involved audiences.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In other words, if you have any interest at all in \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em>, see it now on the biggest screen you can. You will be rewarded with immersion in the spectacle and the scenery. However, if you are indifferent, I encourage you to respect Nolan’s formidable undertaking by avoiding the TV-size streaming and DVD formats down the road.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In other words, if you have any interest at all in \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em>, see it now on the biggest screen you can. You will be rewarded with immersion in the spectacle and the scenery. However, if you are indifferent, I encourage you to respect Nolan’s formidable undertaking by avoiding the TV-size streaming and DVD formats down the road.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Nolan’s \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> is largely structured as a series of flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks) recounted by the shipwrecked Odysseus to the ageless Calypso (Charlize Theron) seven years after his army invaded and defeated Troy. The poor guy just wants to get back to his wife and dog, but the gods have arrayed a litany of life-threatening obstacles (Cyclops, Circe, Sirens) for Odysseus and his ever-dwindling battalion of ocean-traveling soldier-sailors.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman in blue robe and younger man stand looking out from parapet to distance\" class=\"wp-image-13991709\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Anne Hathaway is Penelope and Tom Holland is Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Odysseus possesses supreme confidence but dubious decision-making ability; alas, Nolan and Damon portray him as a relentlessly heroic figure — tailor-made for audience identification — rather than a man of bottomless hubris who has brought his fate (and his men’s) upon himself, with a little assistance from the gods.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, back at the palace, the queen and her son Telemachus (a doughy Tom Holland) debate the dim possibility that the king still draws breath after so many years without a sighting. The dining room overflows with suitors for the queen’s hand and the king’s crown, with the pack headed by Antinous (Robert Pattinson, resembling a young, lean and hungry Dylan McDermott).\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Late in the proceedings, after so much horror and death puts Odysseus in a reflective mood, Nolan finally shows us the horrific impact of war on Troy’s civilians. The suffering of these anonymous people is a catalyst for Odysseus’ awakening to the cost of his ego and ambition. In Happy Ending Hollywood, the director wants us to take strength along with that warning, so he reminds us yet again of the merits of sacrifice, loyalty and perseverance during the final stage of Odysseus’ return.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I invite you to come up with your own modern-day reference points during or after \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em>. There’s the Coen Brothers’ \u003cem>O Brother, Where Art Thou\u003c/em>, of course, and Joseph Conrad’s \u003cem>Heart of Darkness\u003c/em> as reimagined by Francis Ford Coppola as \u003cem>Apocalypse Now\u003c/em>. Telemachus’ impatience, for that matter, may remind you of another stubborn son, \u003cem>Dune\u003c/em>’s Paul Atreides.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I do wish that Nolan had had the wit and whimsy to play Blind Faith (“I’m wasted and I can’t find my way home”) over the end credits. Or, swapping British yearning for Southern California wistfulness, Steely Dan’s \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/0Mv-zD9s58w?si=tpAn6ttMD9mjbNNk\">jazz-pop soliloquy\u003c/a>: “Well, the danger on the rocks is surely passed/Still I remain tied to the mast/Could it be that I have found my home at last/Home at last.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"subhead": "Christopher Nolan's entertaining three-hour adaptation of Homer's epic should be seen on the biggest screen possible.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Classic-rock fans know by heart the ’60s super-group Blind Faith’s \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/gm7JmCSymy4?si=LJ7E6W7MPjeee2eK\">most enduring song\u003c/a>: “Come down off your throne and leave your body alone/Somebody must change/You are the reason I’ve been waiting so long/Somebody holds the key.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I don’t think Steve Winwood had the separated King Odysseus and Queen Penelope of ancient Ithaca in mind when he wrote \u003cem>Can’t Find My Way Home\u003c/em>. Nonetheless, one of writer-director Christopher Nolan’s inescapable and unsolvable challenges in adapting \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.odysseymovie.com/\">The Odyssey\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (opening Friday, July 17) is that Homer’s touchstone myths, foundational themes and indelible set pieces have inspired countless contemporary works of art and are embedded and assimilated into our stories and vocabulary.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nolan (\u003cem>Inception\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Oppenheimer\u003c/em>) is probably the best person this side of Ridley Scott to devise a three-hour, mammoth-budget commercial movie with artistic, literary and intellectual filigrees. He is adept at working on a big canvas, though I’ve never understood how a pop philosopher attained a reputation as a director of profound ideas.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Like so much of Nolan’s oeuvre, \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> is a grand-scale, masculine action-adventure bow-tied with frilly robes of Hallmark-card philosophy. The filmmaker’s ability to thrust audiences into the center of chaotic battles and frenetic dangers — abetted, as always, by a crammed (Oscar, can you hear me?) sound design turbocharged at climactic moments by a drums-and-bass assault — carries the day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000.jpg\" alt=\"soldiers fight in front of burning ancient city\" class=\"wp-image-13991708\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-07772CC_MSG_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A scene from Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Perhaps inevitably, the movie’s power is undercut by the many expository dialogue scenes. They aren’t boring, exactly, but matinee stars of limited range (Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya) delivering lines devoid of poetry does not make for emotionally involved audiences.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In other words, if you have any interest at all in \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em>, see it now on the biggest screen you can. You will be rewarded with immersion in the spectacle and the scenery. However, if you are indifferent, I encourage you to respect Nolan’s formidable undertaking by avoiding the TV-size streaming and DVD formats down the road.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Nolan’s \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> is largely structured as a series of flashbacks (and flashbacks within flashbacks) recounted by the shipwrecked Odysseus to the ageless Calypso (Charlize Theron) seven years after his army invaded and defeated Troy. The poor guy just wants to get back to his wife and dog, but the gods have arrayed a litany of life-threatening obstacles (Cyclops, Circe, Sirens) for Odysseus and his ever-dwindling battalion of ocean-traveling soldier-sailors.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000.jpg\" alt=\"woman in blue robe and younger man stand looking out from parapet to distance\" class=\"wp-image-13991709\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-19534_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Anne Hathaway is Penelope and Tom Holland is Telemachus in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Odysseus possesses supreme confidence but dubious decision-making ability; alas, Nolan and Damon portray him as a relentlessly heroic figure — tailor-made for audience identification — rather than a man of bottomless hubris who has brought his fate (and his men’s) upon himself, with a little assistance from the gods.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, back at the palace, the queen and her son Telemachus (a doughy Tom Holland) debate the dim possibility that the king still draws breath after so many years without a sighting. The dining room overflows with suitors for the queen’s hand and the king’s crown, with the pack headed by Antinous (Robert Pattinson, resembling a young, lean and hungry Dylan McDermott).\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Late in the proceedings, after so much horror and death puts Odysseus in a reflective mood, Nolan finally shows us the horrific impact of war on Troy’s civilians. The suffering of these anonymous people is a catalyst for Odysseus’ awakening to the cost of his ego and ambition. In Happy Ending Hollywood, the director wants us to take strength along with that warning, so he reminds us yet again of the merits of sacrifice, loyalty and perseverance during the final stage of Odysseus’ return.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000.jpg\" alt=\"man in robe with full beard looks worried\" class=\"wp-image-13991710\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/CT-44304_MSG_2000-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Matt Damon as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey.’ (Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em> isn’t sufficiently rich and wise enough to accommodate more than a couple jokes (unlike your blasphemous critic), nor is it anywhere near dull or bad enough to invite you to whisper wisecracks in your neighbor’s ear. Only afterward, when I was thinking about Jack Kerouac’s \u003cem>On the Road\u003c/em> as well as the extensive, irresistible subgenre of road movies, did it dawn on me that in \u003cem>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas\u003c/em>, the protagonist (aka Hunter S. Thompson) receives his visions from the gods via acid and speed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I invite you to come up with your own modern-day reference points during or after \u003cem>The Odyssey\u003c/em>. There’s the Coen Brothers’ \u003cem>O Brother, Where Art Thou\u003c/em>, of course, and Joseph Conrad’s \u003cem>Heart of Darkness\u003c/em> as reimagined by Francis Ford Coppola as \u003cem>Apocalypse Now\u003c/em>. Telemachus’ impatience, for that matter, may remind you of another stubborn son, \u003cem>Dune\u003c/em>’s Paul Atreides.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I do wish that Nolan had had the wit and whimsy to play Blind Faith (“I’m wasted and I can’t find my way home”) over the end credits. Or, swapping British yearning for Southern California wistfulness, Steely Dan’s \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/0Mv-zD9s58w?si=tpAn6ttMD9mjbNNk\">jazz-pop soliloquy\u003c/a>: “Well, the danger on the rocks is surely passed/Still I remain tied to the mast/Could it be that I have found my home at last/Home at last.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘The Odyssey’ opens in theaters July 17.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For years, when Oakland police kicked people out of encampments, they’d tell them to go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wood-street\">Wood Street\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eventually, the Caltrans- and city-owned lot in West Oakland grew into Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people, with 300 residents at its peak during the pandemic. They laid bricks, hammered plywood and planted flowers. They cobbled together makeshift homes and two community centers with showers, bathrooms and a free store. For many struggling with mental health and addiction, the shelter and resources they built for themselves became a lifeline.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Filmmaker Caron Creighton first got to know these residents as a multimedia producer at the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>. When the Wood Street encampment received an eviction notice in 2022, she quit her job and spent nearly a year following them with her camera, documenting their efforts to stop the sweeps.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I just thought it was really powerful,” she says, “people really taking their power back and fighting for what they believed in.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Creighton’s new documentary, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.woodstmovie.com/\">Wood Street\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, premieres in Oakland this week with screenings at the New Parkway (July 14, 6:30 p.m.) and the Grand Lake Theatre (July 15, 7:30 p.m.). The film follows two Wood Street residents, John Janosko and LaMonté Ford, as they rally their community to defend their home. With the help of lawyers and advocates, Wood Street residents eventually sue the city and state to attempt to stop the evictions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time,” Janosko said in a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949327/the-end-of-wood-street-inside-the-struggle-for-stability-housing-on-the-margins-of-the-bay-area\">KQED interview \u003c/a>about the encampment. “It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself, and also help take care of your community.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Throughout the film, many residents explain that they’ve settled at Wood Street because there’s a lack of dignified housing alternatives. In order to access temporary shelter beds, unhoused people must abandon their pets and belongings, only to be sent back on the street shortly after. At tiny home sites, residents say they are left to fend for themselves amid a lack of resources and outbreaks of violence. And neither shelters nor tiny home communities have enough space to accommodate Oakland’s estimated \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/19/oakland-pit-count-homeless-drop-20-percent/\">4,410 homeless residents\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color.jpg\" alt='A sign outside the Wood Street encampment reads: \"Permanent and supportive housing, public land for public good, resident advisory board, moratorium on all evictions, meet with the mayor and city officials.\"' class=\"wp-image-13991610\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wood Street residents’ demands to the city of Oakland. (Bad Name Media/Caron Creighton)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Notably, \u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> doesn’t feature interviews with politicians or other talking heads. Nor does it portray its protagonists merely as victims. In Janosko’s phone footage of community meals and clean-ups, we see imperfect people making a way despite dismal circumstances. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“As I was a reporter covering homelessness, it felt like you always had to have an outside expert talking about it, but a homeless person’s experience isn’t necessarily considered an expertise,” Creighton says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With the documentary, she set out to change that. Creighton captures the psychological toll of the looming eviction as residents relapse into addiction, struggle with mental health and lose the tenuous sense of stability they’d managed to build. Strong personalities emerge, and tensions run high.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wanted to show how all of these processes move to impact an individual. They impact people’s mental health in such a negative way,” Creighton says. “A lot of people are struggling with addiction, and the stress of an encampment sweep isn’t going to help them get clean.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13991609\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A still from ’Wood Street.’ The new documentary follows unhoused residents of a makeshift community as they attempt to fight their eviction. (Bad Name Media/Caron Creighton)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> comes to a tear-jerking crescendo when bulldozers finally arrive to crush people’s homes and belongings. City officials justify the eviction by citing a new affordable housing development slated for the site. That building is now open, and with rents starting at $1,845 for a studio apartment, it’s out of reach for many low-income workers. The encampment site itself is now a parking lot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The word ‘affordable,’ I think, is incredibly misleading,” Creighton says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After Wood Street was cleared out in 2023, many of the residents moved into a tiny home site, which the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047641/oakland-built-a-shelter-for-unhoused-residents-of-wood-street-now-its-evicting-them\">city of Oakland also later evicted\u003c/a>. Only a fraction of them made it into permanent housing. The rest have scattered to encampments around the area. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046259/how-grants-pass-ruling-affected-homeless-enforcement-in-california\">ramped up encampment sweeps\u003c/a> after the Supreme Court’s 2024 Grants Pass Supreme Court ruling. For many homeless people, each sweep means losing irreplaceable documents, possessions and support systems. These life disruptions can have dire consequences, \u003ca href=\"https://nhchc.org/study-shows-involuntary-displacement-of-people-experiencing-homelessness-may-cause-significant-spikes-in-mortality-overdoses-and-hospitalizations/\">including increased chances of overdose and even death\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There’s a better way, there has to be,” Creighton says. “We don’t have to be traumatizing people in order to get them off the street.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Wood Street’ screens on Tuesday, July 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thenewparkway.com/upcomingevents/calendar/\">\u003cem>New Parkway\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> (474 24th St., Oakland), and on Wednesday, July 15 at 7:30 p.m., at the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.renaissancerialto.com/directions.php\">\u003cem>Grand Lake Theatre\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> (3200 Grand Ave., Oakland). Sold out online; limited tickets available at the door.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For years, when Oakland police kicked people out of encampments, they’d tell them to go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wood-street\">Wood Street\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For years, when Oakland police kicked people out of encampments, they’d tell them to go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wood-street\">Wood Street\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Eventually, the Caltrans- and city-owned lot in West Oakland grew into Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people, with 300 residents at its peak during the pandemic. They laid bricks, hammered plywood and planted flowers. They cobbled together makeshift homes and two community centers with showers, bathrooms and a free store. For many struggling with mental health and addiction, the shelter and resources they built for themselves became a lifeline.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Eventually, the Caltrans- and city-owned lot in West Oakland grew into Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people, with 300 residents at its peak during the pandemic. They laid bricks, hammered plywood and planted flowers. They cobbled together makeshift homes and two community centers with showers, bathrooms and a free store. For many struggling with mental health and addiction, the shelter and resources they built for themselves became a lifeline.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Filmmaker Caron Creighton first got to know these residents as a multimedia producer at the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>. When the Wood Street encampment received an eviction notice in 2022, she quit her job and spent nearly a year following them with her camera, documenting their efforts to stop the sweeps.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Filmmaker Caron Creighton first got to know these residents as a multimedia producer at the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>. When the Wood Street encampment received an eviction notice in 2022, she quit her job and spent nearly a year following them with her camera, documenting their efforts to stop the sweeps.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I just thought it was really powerful,” she says, “people really taking their power back and fighting for what they believed in.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I just thought it was really powerful,” she says, “people really taking their power back and fighting for what they believed in.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Creighton’s new documentary, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.woodstmovie.com/\">Wood Street\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, premieres in Oakland this week with screenings at the New Parkway (July 14, 6:30 p.m.) and the Grand Lake Theatre (July 15, 7:30 p.m.). The film follows two Wood Street residents, John Janosko and LaMonté Ford, as they rally their community to defend their home. With the help of lawyers and advocates, Wood Street residents eventually sue the city and state to attempt to stop the evictions.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Creighton’s new documentary, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.woodstmovie.com/\">Wood Street\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, premieres in Oakland this week with screenings at the New Parkway (July 14, 6:30 p.m.) and the Grand Lake Theatre (July 15, 7:30 p.m.). The film follows two Wood Street residents, John Janosko and LaMonté Ford, as they rally their community to defend their home. With the help of lawyers and advocates, Wood Street residents eventually sue the city and state to attempt to stop the evictions.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time,” Janosko said in a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949327/the-end-of-wood-street-inside-the-struggle-for-stability-housing-on-the-margins-of-the-bay-area\">KQED interview \u003c/a>about the encampment. “It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself, and also help take care of your community.”\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time,” Janosko said in a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949327/the-end-of-wood-street-inside-the-struggle-for-stability-housing-on-the-margins-of-the-bay-area\">KQED interview \u003c/a>about the encampment. “It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself, and also help take care of your community.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Throughout the film, many residents explain that they’ve settled at Wood Street because there’s a lack of dignified housing alternatives. In order to access temporary shelter beds, unhoused people must abandon their pets and belongings, only to be sent back on the street shortly after. At tiny home sites, residents say they are left to fend for themselves amid a lack of resources and outbreaks of violence. And neither shelters nor tiny home communities have enough space to accommodate Oakland’s estimated \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/19/oakland-pit-count-homeless-drop-20-percent/\">4,410 homeless residents\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Throughout the film, many residents explain that they’ve settled at Wood Street because there’s a lack of dignified housing alternatives. In order to access temporary shelter beds, unhoused people must abandon their pets and belongings, only to be sent back on the street shortly after. At tiny home sites, residents say they are left to fend for themselves amid a lack of resources and outbreaks of violence. And neither shelters nor tiny home communities have enough space to accommodate Oakland’s estimated \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/19/oakland-pit-count-homeless-drop-20-percent/\">4,410 homeless residents\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color.jpg\" alt=\"A sign outside the Wood Street encampment reads: "Permanent and supportive housing, public land for public good, resident advisory board, moratorium on all evictions, meet with the mayor and city officials."\" class=\"wp-image-13991610\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wood Street residents’ demands to the city of Oakland. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color.jpg\" alt=\"A sign outside the Wood Street encampment reads: "Permanent and supportive housing, public land for public good, resident advisory board, moratorium on all evictions, meet with the mayor and city officials."\" class=\"wp-image-13991610\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wood Street residents’ demands to the city of Oakland. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Notably, \u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> doesn’t feature interviews with politicians or other talking heads. Nor does it portray its protagonists merely as victims. In Janosko’s phone footage of community meals and clean-ups, we see imperfect people making a way despite dismal circumstances. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Notably, \u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> doesn’t feature interviews with politicians or other talking heads. Nor does it portray its protagonists merely as victims. In Janosko’s phone footage of community meals and clean-ups, we see imperfect people making a way despite dismal circumstances. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“As I was a reporter covering homelessness, it felt like you always had to have an outside expert talking about it, but a homeless person’s experience isn’t necessarily considered an expertise,” Creighton says. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“As I was a reporter covering homelessness, it felt like you always had to have an outside expert talking about it, but a homeless person’s experience isn’t necessarily considered an expertise,” Creighton says. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>With the documentary, she set out to change that. Creighton captures the psychological toll of the looming eviction as residents relapse into addiction, struggle with mental health and lose the tenuous sense of stability they’d managed to build. Strong personalities emerge, and tensions run high.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>With the documentary, she set out to change that. Creighton captures the psychological toll of the looming eviction as residents relapse into addiction, struggle with mental health and lose the tenuous sense of stability they’d managed to build. Strong personalities emerge, and tensions run high.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I wanted to show how all of these processes move to impact an individual. They impact people’s mental health in such a negative way,” Creighton says. “A lot of people are struggling with addiction, and the stress of an encampment sweep isn’t going to help them get clean.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I wanted to show how all of these processes move to impact an individual. They impact people’s mental health in such a negative way,” Creighton says. “A lot of people are struggling with addiction, and the stress of an encampment sweep isn’t going to help them get clean.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1200x675.jpg 1200w",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13991609\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A still from ’Wood Street.’ The new documentary follows unhoused residents of a makeshift community as they attempt to fight their eviction. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13991609\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A still from ’Wood Street.’ The new documentary follows unhoused residents of a makeshift community as they attempt to fight their eviction. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> comes to a tear-jerking crescendo when bulldozers finally arrive to crush people’s homes and belongings. City officials justify the eviction by citing a new affordable housing development slated for the site. That building is now open, and with rents starting at $1,845 for a studio apartment, it’s out of reach for many low-income workers. The encampment site itself is now a parking lot. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> comes to a tear-jerking crescendo when bulldozers finally arrive to crush people’s homes and belongings. City officials justify the eviction by citing a new affordable housing development slated for the site. That building is now open, and with rents starting at $1,845 for a studio apartment, it’s out of reach for many low-income workers. The encampment site itself is now a parking lot. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The word ‘affordable,’ I think, is incredibly misleading,” Creighton says.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>After Wood Street was cleared out in 2023, many of the residents moved into a tiny home site, which the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047641/oakland-built-a-shelter-for-unhoused-residents-of-wood-street-now-its-evicting-them\">city of Oakland also later evicted\u003c/a>. Only a fraction of them made it into permanent housing. The rest have scattered to encampments around the area. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>After Wood Street was cleared out in 2023, many of the residents moved into a tiny home site, which the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047641/oakland-built-a-shelter-for-unhoused-residents-of-wood-street-now-its-evicting-them\">city of Oakland also later evicted\u003c/a>. Only a fraction of them made it into permanent housing. The rest have scattered to encampments around the area. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Wood Street’ screens on Tuesday, July 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thenewparkway.com/upcomingevents/calendar/\">\u003cem>New Parkway\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> (474 24th St., Oakland), and on Wednesday, July 15 at 7:30 p.m., at the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.renaissancerialto.com/directions.php\">\u003cem>Grand Lake Theatre\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> (3200 Grand Ave., Oakland). Sold out online; limited tickets available at the door.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Homeless Oaklanders organize against a devastating eviction in Caron Creighton’s new documentary.",
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"title": "In ‘Wood Street,’ Encampment Residents Fight to Remain | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For years, when Oakland police kicked people out of encampments, they’d tell them to go to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/wood-street\">Wood Street\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eventually, the Caltrans- and city-owned lot in West Oakland grew into Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people, with 300 residents at its peak during the pandemic. They laid bricks, hammered plywood and planted flowers. They cobbled together makeshift homes and two community centers with showers, bathrooms and a free store. For many struggling with mental health and addiction, the shelter and resources they built for themselves became a lifeline.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Filmmaker Caron Creighton first got to know these residents as a multimedia producer at the \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em>. When the Wood Street encampment received an eviction notice in 2022, she quit her job and spent nearly a year following them with her camera, documenting their efforts to stop the sweeps.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I just thought it was really powerful,” she says, “people really taking their power back and fighting for what they believed in.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Creighton’s new documentary, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.woodstmovie.com/\">Wood Street\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, premieres in Oakland this week with screenings at the New Parkway (July 14, 6:30 p.m.) and the Grand Lake Theatre (July 15, 7:30 p.m.). The film follows two Wood Street residents, John Janosko and LaMonté Ford, as they rally their community to defend their home. With the help of lawyers and advocates, Wood Street residents eventually sue the city and state to attempt to stop the evictions.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time,” Janosko said in a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949327/the-end-of-wood-street-inside-the-struggle-for-stability-housing-on-the-margins-of-the-bay-area\">KQED interview \u003c/a>about the encampment. “It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself, and also help take care of your community.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Throughout the film, many residents explain that they’ve settled at Wood Street because there’s a lack of dignified housing alternatives. In order to access temporary shelter beds, unhoused people must abandon their pets and belongings, only to be sent back on the street shortly after. At tiny home sites, residents say they are left to fend for themselves amid a lack of resources and outbreaks of violence. And neither shelters nor tiny home communities have enough space to accommodate Oakland’s estimated \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/19/oakland-pit-count-homeless-drop-20-percent/\">4,410 homeless residents\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color.jpg\" alt='A sign outside the Wood Street encampment reads: \"Permanent and supportive housing, public land for public good, resident advisory board, moratorium on all evictions, meet with the mayor and city officials.\"' class=\"wp-image-13991610\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/shot-of-demands-sign-and-community-in-the-background-color-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Wood Street residents’ demands to the city of Oakland. (Bad Name Media/Caron Creighton)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Notably, \u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> doesn’t feature interviews with politicians or other talking heads. Nor does it portray its protagonists merely as victims. In Janosko’s phone footage of community meals and clean-ups, we see imperfect people making a way despite dismal circumstances. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“As I was a reporter covering homelessness, it felt like you always had to have an outside expert talking about it, but a homeless person’s experience isn’t necessarily considered an expertise,” Creighton says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>With the documentary, she set out to change that. Creighton captures the psychological toll of the looming eviction as residents relapse into addiction, struggle with mental health and lose the tenuous sense of stability they’d managed to build. Strong personalities emerge, and tensions run high.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wanted to show how all of these processes move to impact an individual. They impact people’s mental health in such a negative way,” Creighton says. “A lot of people are struggling with addiction, and the stress of an encampment sweep isn’t going to help them get clean.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13991609\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/Wood-Street-crushing-flowers-1-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A still from ’Wood Street.’ The new documentary follows unhoused residents of a makeshift community as they attempt to fight their eviction. (Bad Name Media/Caron Creighton)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Wood Street\u003c/em> comes to a tear-jerking crescendo when bulldozers finally arrive to crush people’s homes and belongings. City officials justify the eviction by citing a new affordable housing development slated for the site. That building is now open, and with rents starting at $1,845 for a studio apartment, it’s out of reach for many low-income workers. The encampment site itself is now a parking lot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The word ‘affordable,’ I think, is incredibly misleading,” Creighton says.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>After Wood Street was cleared out in 2023, many of the residents moved into a tiny home site, which the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12047641/oakland-built-a-shelter-for-unhoused-residents-of-wood-street-now-its-evicting-them\">city of Oakland also later evicted\u003c/a>. Only a fraction of them made it into permanent housing. The rest have scattered to encampments around the area. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12046259/how-grants-pass-ruling-affected-homeless-enforcement-in-california\">ramped up encampment sweeps\u003c/a> after the Supreme Court’s 2024 Grants Pass Supreme Court ruling. For many homeless people, each sweep means losing irreplaceable documents, possessions and support systems. These life disruptions can have dire consequences, \u003ca href=\"https://nhchc.org/study-shows-involuntary-displacement-of-people-experiencing-homelessness-may-cause-significant-spikes-in-mortality-overdoses-and-hospitalizations/\">including increased chances of overdose and even death\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There’s a better way, there has to be,” Creighton says. “We don’t have to be traumatizing people in order to get them off the street.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Wood Street’ screens on Tuesday, July 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.thenewparkway.com/upcomingevents/calendar/\">\u003cem>New Parkway\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> (474 24th St., Oakland), and on Wednesday, July 15 at 7:30 p.m., at the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.renaissancerialto.com/directions.php\">\u003cem>Grand Lake Theatre\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> (3200 Grand Ave., Oakland). Sold out online; limited tickets available at the door.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Jewel From the World of Black Film Arrives at YBCA",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Ashley Clark joined the Criterion Collection as its curatorial director in 2020, he brought along a wish list of titles he hoped to acquire. One was Zeinabu irene Davis’ first narrative feature, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/compensation\">Compensation\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a 1999 black-and-white film about two Chicago couples who mirror each other across an expanse of decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s such a unique and thoughtful film about a lot of serious issues,” Clark tells KQED. “It could sound academic or forbidding, but it’s made with such a spirit of generosity.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Deaf actress Michelle A. Banks and hearing actor John Earl Jelks play Malindy and Arthur in the 1910s (and Malaika and Nico in the 1990s), Black Americans facing racism and emerging pandemics. Davis uses inventive techniques, like silent film–era intertitles and archival images, to tell the two love stories in a way that Clark describes as “alive and beautiful and engaging.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On July 17, Clark will screen \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/the-world-of-black-film-screening-book-signing-7-17-26/\">Compensation\u003c/a>\u003c/em> at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in a co-presentation with the Bay Area Video Coalition. Both Davis and Clark will be present for a conversation following the screening. The event is a rare treat that just a few years ago would have been even more of a rarity.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://vimeo.com/1049085193\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> screened at festivals 27 years ago, but the film was never picked up by distributors, and therefore never released in theaters. It remained in circulation thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.wmm.com/\">Women Make Movies\u003c/a>, a nonprofit distributor in New York. That is, until Clark approached Davis about acquiring \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Davis’ independent feature is finally reaching audiences en masse. \u003cem>Compensation \u003c/em>began streaming on the Criterion Channel in 2021, entered the Library of Congress’ \u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/25-films-named-to-national-film-registry-for-preservation/s/55d5285d-916f-4105-b7d4-7fc3ba8664e3\">National Film Registry\u003c/a> in 2024, was digitally restored in 4K, received its first theatrical release in 2025, and is now out in the world as a Blu-ray and DVD.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“One of our metrics of success really is looking at \u003ca href=\"https://letterboxd.com/film/compensation-1999/\">Letterboxd\u003c/a>,” Clark explains. “You can see that this film has gone from a small number of logged views to suddenly hundreds and hundreds of reviews on there from young cinephiles who are giving it four-star reviews and five-star reviews and saying, ‘Where was this film all my life?’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> is just one of 100 films Clark has identified that could elicit a similar response. His book \u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-black-film-a-journey-through-cinematic-blackness-in-100-films-with-a-foreword-by-john-akomfrah-ashley-clark/97ee234f39de4965?ean=9781529438253\">\u003cem>The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films\u003c/em>\u003c/a> came out earlier this year. The compendium isn’t a collection of “the greatest,” Clark explains, but a series of personal arguments for significance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark.png\" alt=\"bright green book cover with title and image of Black woman, spread of essay and film stills\" class=\"wp-image-13991538\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ashley Clark’s ‘The World of Black Film’ was published by Laurence King Publishing in February 2026. (YBCA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wanted to present something that was quite subjective and potentially contentious,” says Clark, who has Jamaican heritage, was born and raised in the U.K. and now lives in the United States. “One of the things with the book that I’m trying to gently push back against is a sort of reflexive conflation of Black film with American film.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Included in the book are Ibrahim Shaddad’s 1964 film \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/hunting-party\">\u003cem>Hunting Party\u003c/em>\u003c/a> (a thesis film by a 19-year-old Sudanese filmmaker in Germany); Flora Gomes’ 1988 \u003cem>Mortu Nega\u003c/em> (the first film produced in independent Guinea-Bissau); and Jordan Peele’s 2017 breakout \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>. Clark’s essays are unpretentious, chatty and very personal, knitting together a chronological network of influences and ideas. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The book’s films span 30 countries and 111 years. Like \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> before its restoration and theatrical release, not all 100 are readily available to all audiences. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>YBCA has yet to bring back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13841205/curatorial-crisis-bay-area-art-institutions\">a full film program\u003c/a>, but cinephiles will be pleased to hear of at least one substantive series on the horizon: Clark will return this fall for a weekly program drawn from the pages of \u003cem>The World of Black Film\u003c/em>. Subtitled “Revolutions,” the Nov. 14–Dec. 19 series will focus on films from the 1960s to the early 1980s — when decolonization movements and radical politics led to greater numbers of Black filmmakers. (\u003cem>Mortu Negra\u003c/em>, recently restored, will screen Dec. 5.)\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I hope that everything in the book one day does become available,” Clark says. “And if my book can play some role in helping that become the case, I’d be absolutely delighted.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/the-world-of-black-film-screening-book-signing-7-17-26/\">The World of Black Film: ‘Compensation’ + Book Signing\u003c/a> takes place Friday, July 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St., San Francisco). A talkback with Criterion Collection Curatorial Director, Ashley Clark and director, Zeinabu irene Davis will take place following the screening.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bring your own copy of ‘\u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-black-film-a-journey-through-cinematic-blackness-in-100-films-with-a-foreword-by-john-akomfrah-ashley-clark/97ee234f39de4965?ean=9781529438253\">The World of Black Film\u003c/a>’ at 6 p.m. to have it signed by Ashley Clark.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/the-world-of-black-film-screening-book-signing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Deaf actress Michelle A. Banks and hearing actor John Earl Jelks play Malindy and Arthur in the 1910s (and Malaika and Nico in the 1990s), Black Americans facing racism and emerging pandemics. Davis uses inventive techniques, like silent film–era intertitles and archival images, to tell the two love stories in a way that Clark describes as “alive and beautiful and engaging.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> screened at festivals 27 years ago, but the film was never picked up by distributors, and therefore never released in theaters. It remained in circulation thanks to \u003ca href=\"https://www.wmm.com/\">Women Make Movies\u003c/a>, a nonprofit distributor in New York. That is, until Clark approached Davis about acquiring \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Now, Davis’ independent feature is finally reaching audiences en masse. \u003cem>Compensation \u003c/em>began streaming on the Criterion Channel in 2021, entered the Library of Congress’ \u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/25-films-named-to-national-film-registry-for-preservation/s/55d5285d-916f-4105-b7d4-7fc3ba8664e3\">National Film Registry\u003c/a> in 2024, was digitally restored in 4K, received its first theatrical release in 2025, and is now out in the world as a Blu-ray and DVD.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Now, Davis’ independent feature is finally reaching audiences en masse. \u003cem>Compensation \u003c/em>began streaming on the Criterion Channel in 2021, entered the Library of Congress’ \u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/25-films-named-to-national-film-registry-for-preservation/s/55d5285d-916f-4105-b7d4-7fc3ba8664e3\">National Film Registry\u003c/a> in 2024, was digitally restored in 4K, received its first theatrical release in 2025, and is now out in the world as a Blu-ray and DVD.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“One of our metrics of success really is looking at \u003ca href=\"https://letterboxd.com/film/compensation-1999/\">Letterboxd\u003c/a>,” Clark explains. “You can see that this film has gone from a small number of logged views to suddenly hundreds and hundreds of reviews on there from young cinephiles who are giving it four-star reviews and five-star reviews and saying, ‘Where was this film all my life?’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> is just one of 100 films Clark has identified that could elicit a similar response. His book \u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-black-film-a-journey-through-cinematic-blackness-in-100-films-with-a-foreword-by-john-akomfrah-ashley-clark/97ee234f39de4965?ean=9781529438253\">\u003cem>The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films\u003c/em>\u003c/a> came out earlier this year. The compendium isn’t a collection of “the greatest,” Clark explains, but a series of personal arguments for significance.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> is just one of 100 films Clark has identified that could elicit a similar response. His book \u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-black-film-a-journey-through-cinematic-blackness-in-100-films-with-a-foreword-by-john-akomfrah-ashley-clark/97ee234f39de4965?ean=9781529438253\">\u003cem>The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films\u003c/em>\u003c/a> came out earlier this year. The compendium isn’t a collection of “the greatest,” Clark explains, but a series of personal arguments for significance.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark.png\" alt=\"bright green book cover with title and image of Black woman, spread of essay and film stills\" class=\"wp-image-13991538\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ashley Clark’s ‘The World of Black Film’ was published by Laurence King Publishing in February 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark.png\" alt=\"bright green book cover with title and image of Black woman, spread of essay and film stills\" class=\"wp-image-13991538\"/>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ashley Clark’s ‘The World of Black Film’ was published by Laurence King Publishing in February 2026.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I wanted to present something that was quite subjective and potentially contentious,” says Clark, who has Jamaican heritage, was born and raised in the U.K. and now lives in the United States. “One of the things with the book that I’m trying to gently push back against is a sort of reflexive conflation of Black film with American film.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Included in the book are Ibrahim Shaddad’s 1964 film \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/hunting-party\">\u003cem>Hunting Party\u003c/em>\u003c/a> (a thesis film by a 19-year-old Sudanese filmmaker in Germany); Flora Gomes’ 1988 \u003cem>Mortu Nega\u003c/em> (the first film produced in independent Guinea-Bissau); and Jordan Peele’s 2017 breakout \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>. Clark’s essays are unpretentious, chatty and very personal, knitting together a chronological network of influences and ideas. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Included in the book are Ibrahim Shaddad’s 1964 film \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/hunting-party\">\u003cem>Hunting Party\u003c/em>\u003c/a> (a thesis film by a 19-year-old Sudanese filmmaker in Germany); Flora Gomes’ 1988 \u003cem>Mortu Nega\u003c/em> (the first film produced in independent Guinea-Bissau); and Jordan Peele’s 2017 breakout \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>. Clark’s essays are unpretentious, chatty and very personal, knitting together a chronological network of influences and ideas. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The book’s films span 30 countries and 111 years. Like \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> before its restoration and theatrical release, not all 100 are readily available to all audiences. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The book’s films span 30 countries and 111 years. Like \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> before its restoration and theatrical release, not all 100 are readily available to all audiences. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>YBCA has yet to bring back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13841205/curatorial-crisis-bay-area-art-institutions\">a full film program\u003c/a>, but cinephiles will be pleased to hear of at least one substantive series on the horizon: Clark will return this fall for a weekly program drawn from the pages of \u003cem>The World of Black Film\u003c/em>. Subtitled “Revolutions,” the Nov. 14–Dec. 19 series will focus on films from the 1960s to the early 1980s — when decolonization movements and radical politics led to greater numbers of Black filmmakers. (\u003cem>Mortu Negra\u003c/em>, recently restored, will screen Dec. 5.)\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>YBCA has yet to bring back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13841205/curatorial-crisis-bay-area-art-institutions\">a full film program\u003c/a>, but cinephiles will be pleased to hear of at least one substantive series on the horizon: Clark will return this fall for a weekly program drawn from the pages of \u003cem>The World of Black Film\u003c/em>. Subtitled “Revolutions,” the Nov. 14–Dec. 19 series will focus on films from the 1960s to the early 1980s — when decolonization movements and radical politics led to greater numbers of Black filmmakers. (\u003cem>Mortu Negra\u003c/em>, recently restored, will screen Dec. 5.)\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I hope that everything in the book one day does become available,” Clark says. “And if my book can play some role in helping that become the case, I’d be absolutely delighted.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/the-world-of-black-film-screening-book-signing-7-17-26/\">The World of Black Film: ‘Compensation’ + Book Signing\u003c/a> takes place Friday, July 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St., San Francisco). A talkback with Criterion Collection Curatorial Director, Ashley Clark and director, Zeinabu irene Davis will take place following the screening.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Zeinabu irene Davis’ newly restored 1999 film ‘Compensation’ screens in San Francisco on July 17.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Ashley Clark joined the Criterion Collection as its curatorial director in 2020, he brought along a wish list of titles he hoped to acquire. One was Zeinabu irene Davis’ first narrative feature, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/compensation\">Compensation\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, a 1999 black-and-white film about two Chicago couples who mirror each other across an expanse of decades.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s such a unique and thoughtful film about a lot of serious issues,” Clark tells KQED. “It could sound academic or forbidding, but it’s made with such a spirit of generosity.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Deaf actress Michelle A. Banks and hearing actor John Earl Jelks play Malindy and Arthur in the 1910s (and Malaika and Nico in the 1990s), Black Americans facing racism and emerging pandemics. Davis uses inventive techniques, like silent film–era intertitles and archival images, to tell the two love stories in a way that Clark describes as “alive and beautiful and engaging.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On July 17, Clark will screen \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/the-world-of-black-film-screening-book-signing-7-17-26/\">Compensation\u003c/a>\u003c/em> at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in a co-presentation with the Bay Area Video Coalition. Both Davis and Clark will be present for a conversation following the screening. The event is a rare treat that just a few years ago would have been even more of a rarity.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Davis’ independent feature is finally reaching audiences en masse. \u003cem>Compensation \u003c/em>began streaming on the Criterion Channel in 2021, entered the Library of Congress’ \u003ca href=\"https://newsroom.loc.gov/news/25-films-named-to-national-film-registry-for-preservation/s/55d5285d-916f-4105-b7d4-7fc3ba8664e3\">National Film Registry\u003c/a> in 2024, was digitally restored in 4K, received its first theatrical release in 2025, and is now out in the world as a Blu-ray and DVD.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“One of our metrics of success really is looking at \u003ca href=\"https://letterboxd.com/film/compensation-1999/\">Letterboxd\u003c/a>,” Clark explains. “You can see that this film has gone from a small number of logged views to suddenly hundreds and hundreds of reviews on there from young cinephiles who are giving it four-star reviews and five-star reviews and saying, ‘Where was this film all my life?’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> is just one of 100 films Clark has identified that could elicit a similar response. His book \u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-black-film-a-journey-through-cinematic-blackness-in-100-films-with-a-foreword-by-john-akomfrah-ashley-clark/97ee234f39de4965?ean=9781529438253\">\u003cem>The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films\u003c/em>\u003c/a> came out earlier this year. The compendium isn’t a collection of “the greatest,” Clark explains, but a series of personal arguments for significance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark.png\" alt=\"bright green book cover with title and image of Black woman, spread of essay and film stills\" class=\"wp-image-13991538\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-1536x864.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/07/wbf_ashley-clark-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ashley Clark’s ‘The World of Black Film’ was published by Laurence King Publishing in February 2026. (YBCA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wanted to present something that was quite subjective and potentially contentious,” says Clark, who has Jamaican heritage, was born and raised in the U.K. and now lives in the United States. “One of the things with the book that I’m trying to gently push back against is a sort of reflexive conflation of Black film with American film.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Included in the book are Ibrahim Shaddad’s 1964 film \u003ca href=\"https://www.criterionchannel.com/hunting-party\">\u003cem>Hunting Party\u003c/em>\u003c/a> (a thesis film by a 19-year-old Sudanese filmmaker in Germany); Flora Gomes’ 1988 \u003cem>Mortu Nega\u003c/em> (the first film produced in independent Guinea-Bissau); and Jordan Peele’s 2017 breakout \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>. Clark’s essays are unpretentious, chatty and very personal, knitting together a chronological network of influences and ideas. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The book’s films span 30 countries and 111 years. Like \u003cem>Compensation\u003c/em> before its restoration and theatrical release, not all 100 are readily available to all audiences. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>YBCA has yet to bring back \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13841205/curatorial-crisis-bay-area-art-institutions\">a full film program\u003c/a>, but cinephiles will be pleased to hear of at least one substantive series on the horizon: Clark will return this fall for a weekly program drawn from the pages of \u003cem>The World of Black Film\u003c/em>. Subtitled “Revolutions,” the Nov. 14–Dec. 19 series will focus on films from the 1960s to the early 1980s — when decolonization movements and radical politics led to greater numbers of Black filmmakers. (\u003cem>Mortu Negra\u003c/em>, recently restored, will screen Dec. 5.)\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I hope that everything in the book one day does become available,” Clark says. “And if my book can play some role in helping that become the case, I’d be absolutely delighted.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.org/event/the-world-of-black-film-screening-book-signing-7-17-26/\">The World of Black Film: ‘Compensation’ + Book Signing\u003c/a> takes place Friday, July 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St., San Francisco). A talkback with Criterion Collection Curatorial Director, Ashley Clark and director, Zeinabu irene Davis will take place following the screening.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bring your own copy of ‘\u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-black-film-a-journey-through-cinematic-blackness-in-100-films-with-a-foreword-by-john-akomfrah-ashley-clark/97ee234f39de4965?ean=9781529438253\">The World of Black Film\u003c/a>’ at 6 p.m. to have it signed by Ashley Clark.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ybca.ticketing.veevartapp.com/tickets/view/list/the-world-of-black-film-screening-book-signing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Jonathan Kiefer knows a little something about the inertia and distractions that can keep you from getting out of the house. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite being a bona fide film buff — Kiefer is a filmmaker, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/roxie-theater\">Roxie Theater\u003c/a> employee, and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/california-college-of-the-arts\">California College of the Arts\u003c/a> film professor — he was surprised “and a little sad” at how rarely he was actually going to the movies. Earlier this year, he decided to take matters into his own hands. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/\">Vital Signs Film Series\u003c/a> (aka “monthly proof of cinematic life”) launched last month at Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.shapeshifterscinema.com/\">Shapeshifters Cinema\u003c/a>, a 40-seat theater best known for its experimental offerings. What Kiefer pitched wasn’t their ordinary fare — 16mm shorts, expanded cinema events, DIY workshops — but Kathleen Quillian and Gilbert Guerrero, Shapeshifters’ founders, were game. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Outside of the experimental film and the programming that we do, how do we just keep expanding?” Gilbert says. “We have this space, it’s just sitting here empty.” Why not host a weekend matinee? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The series kicked off on May 2 with the prolific South Korean director Hong Sansoo’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/p/may-3-what-does-that-nature-say-to\">What Does That Nature Say to You\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. A short animation by fellow CCA faculty member \u003ca href=\"https://www.kotaezawa.com/\">Kota Ezawa\u003c/a> opened the program. The series’ second offering, Caroline Golum’s \u003cem>Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/em>, screens this Sunday, June 21.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://youtu.be/QuKics1aoFc?si=qapEP1Mh2JBpxCqt\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Vital Signs hopes to fill an untapped niche in the Bay Area film ecosystem. Not quite experimental and not quite mainstream, Vital Signs movies might be touring the international film festival circuit; they likely won’t be playing on a Bay Area screen anytime soon. Kiefer describes them as “adventurous stuff that is kind of indie, art house, slightly strange, noncommercial, very boutique offerings.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe if you’re lucky, they’ll wind up on the streaming platforms,” he explains. “But then with this type of film especially, it’s not as good just to watch it at home as it is to be in even a small room with just a few people.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Made on a budget of around $200,000, \u003cem>Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/em> tells the story of the 14th-century Christian mystic \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich\">Julian of Norwich\u003c/a>, who recounted her visions in what is now considered the oldest surviving English-language text written by a woman. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You might think this is going to be cheeky to a point of detachment and super hipster, holding the audience at arm’s length, but it’s a very sincere piece,” Kiefer says. “And it’s really beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Golum, who’s based in Brooklyn, will be in attendance for a Q&A after the Shapeshifters screening.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1316\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000.jpg\" alt=\"small crowd in theater seats looking at screen with multiple projectors running behind them\" class=\"wp-image-13990808\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000-1536x1011.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">‘Too Much is Never Enough,’ a collaborative expanded cinema performance at Shapeshifters Cinema on Feb. 6, 2025 (Courtesy of Shapeshifters Cinema)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kiefer’s pitch came just as Shapeshifters was making its own ask. In March, the cinema launched a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-shapeshifters-cinema-brewery-cafe\">GoFundMe\u003c/a> to raise $60,000 to help cover immediate expenses. “The biggest donor to our organization over the years has been an unnamed shadow donor,” the GoFundMe explains, “and that has been us — the founding directors — who have kept the engine running with regular financial infusions from out of our own pockets.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Founded in 2012, Shapeshifters Cinema started as a monthly experimental film series, first at Oakland’s Arbor Cafe, then at the Temescal Arts Center. Since 2019, they’ve operated a microcinema and brewery in a Victorian near Jack London Square (Guerrero is an award-winning brewer). In 2023 they took over the next-door cafe.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While workshop fees, rentals and food and beer sales help sustain the operation, Guerrero says Shapeshifters isn’t yet profitable. “From the business side of it, it’s just how do we get people to come in so we can pay the rent,” Guerrero says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the first Vital Signs screening didn’t have a huge turnout, Quillian says, the people who came \u003cem>were\u003c/em> first-time visitors. “That is something we’re excited about,” she says. “It’s going to open up space for people who are not necessarily into short experimental or performative work.” After all, it’s Shapeshifters’ fan base, now growing, that helped them raise over $53,000 in two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kiefer is well aware of the factors at play in the current arts funding landscape — and the importance of artist-run places like Shapeshifters. He tried to impart the lessons of indie filmmaking to his CCA students. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Make what you can with what you have,” he says he told them. “Understand that institutions may or may not be helpful, or if they are, it might be in a limited way or for a limited time. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13985413/california-college-of-the-arts-sfai-mills-art-school-closures\">closing of the school\u003c/a> seems like a brutal but effective example of that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Vital Signs puts that indie mentality into practice, building a community of adventurous moviegoers one hard-to-see film at a time. Ben Rivers’ \u003ca href=\"https://grasshopperfilm.com/film/mares-nest/\">\u003cem>Mare’s Nest\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is scheduled for July 5, Patrick Wang’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://keithuhlich.substack.com/p/a-rimbaud\">A. Rimbaud\u003c/a>\u003c/em> for Aug. 2. Future screenings will include Artemis Shaw’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.artemisshaw.com/eye\">\u003cem>Removal of the Eye\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and Sofia Bohdanowicz’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sofiabohdanowicz.com/films-1/measures-for-a-funeral\">\u003cem>Measures for a Funeral\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s no accident the series launched in spring, Kiefer says: “You start to see flowers blooming, and there’s a hope that’s associated with that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tickettailor.com/events/shapeshifterscinema/2202635\">Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/a>’ screens Sunday, June 21, at 2 p.m. at Shapeshifters Cinema (857 5th St., Oakland). Director Caroline Golum will be in attendance.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/\">Vital Signs Film Series\u003c/a> (aka “monthly proof of cinematic life”) launched last month at Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.shapeshifterscinema.com/\">Shapeshifters Cinema\u003c/a>, a 40-seat theater best known for its experimental offerings. What Kiefer pitched wasn’t their ordinary fare — 16mm shorts, expanded cinema events, DIY workshops — but Kathleen Quillian and Gilbert Guerrero, Shapeshifters’ founders, were game. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Outside of the experimental film and the programming that we do, how do we just keep expanding?” Gilbert says. “We have this space, it’s just sitting here empty.” Why not host a weekend matinee? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The series kicked off on May 2 with the prolific South Korean director Hong Sansoo’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/p/may-3-what-does-that-nature-say-to\">What Does That Nature Say to You\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. A short animation by fellow CCA faculty member \u003ca href=\"https://www.kotaezawa.com/\">Kota Ezawa\u003c/a> opened the program. The series’ second offering, Caroline Golum’s \u003cem>Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/em>, screens this Sunday, June 21.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Vital Signs hopes to fill an untapped niche in the Bay Area film ecosystem. Not quite experimental and not quite mainstream, Vital Signs movies might be touring the international film festival circuit; they likely won’t be playing on a Bay Area screen anytime soon. Kiefer describes them as “adventurous stuff that is kind of indie, art house, slightly strange, noncommercial, very boutique offerings.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Maybe if you’re lucky, they’ll wind up on the streaming platforms,” he explains. “But then with this type of film especially, it’s not as good just to watch it at home as it is to be in even a small room with just a few people.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Made on a budget of around $200,000, \u003cem>Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/em> tells the story of the 14th-century Christian mystic \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich\">Julian of Norwich\u003c/a>, who recounted her visions in what is now considered the oldest surviving English-language text written by a woman. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Kiefer’s pitch came just as Shapeshifters was making its own ask. In March, the cinema launched a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-shapeshifters-cinema-brewery-cafe\">GoFundMe\u003c/a> to raise $60,000 to help cover immediate expenses. “The biggest donor to our organization over the years has been an unnamed shadow donor,” the GoFundMe explains, “and that has been us — the founding directors — who have kept the engine running with regular financial infusions from out of our own pockets.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Founded in 2012, Shapeshifters Cinema started as a monthly experimental film series, first at Oakland’s Arbor Cafe, then at the Temescal Arts Center. Since 2019, they’ve operated a microcinema and brewery in a Victorian near Jack London Square (Guerrero is an award-winning brewer). In 2023 they took over the next-door cafe.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While workshop fees, rentals and food and beer sales help sustain the operation, Guerrero says Shapeshifters isn’t yet profitable. “From the business side of it, it’s just how do we get people to come in so we can pay the rent,” Guerrero says. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While the first Vital Signs screening didn’t have a huge turnout, Quillian says, the people who came \u003cem>were\u003c/em> first-time visitors. “That is something we’re excited about,” she says. “It’s going to open up space for people who are not necessarily into short experimental or performative work.” After all, it’s Shapeshifters’ fan base, now growing, that helped them raise over $53,000 in two weeks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Kiefer is well aware of the factors at play in the current arts funding landscape — and the importance of artist-run places like Shapeshifters. He tried to impart the lessons of indie filmmaking to his CCA students. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Make what you can with what you have,” he says he told them. “Understand that institutions may or may not be helpful, or if they are, it might be in a limited way or for a limited time. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13985413/california-college-of-the-arts-sfai-mills-art-school-closures\">closing of the school\u003c/a> seems like a brutal but effective example of that.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Vital Signs puts that indie mentality into practice, building a community of adventurous moviegoers one hard-to-see film at a time. Ben Rivers’ \u003ca href=\"https://grasshopperfilm.com/film/mares-nest/\">\u003cem>Mare’s Nest\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is scheduled for July 5, Patrick Wang’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://keithuhlich.substack.com/p/a-rimbaud\">A. Rimbaud\u003c/a>\u003c/em> for Aug. 2. Future screenings will include Artemis Shaw’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.artemisshaw.com/eye\">\u003cem>Removal of the Eye\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and Sofia Bohdanowicz’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sofiabohdanowicz.com/films-1/measures-for-a-funeral\">\u003cem>Measures for a Funeral\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s no accident the series launched in spring, Kiefer says: “You start to see flowers blooming, and there’s a hope that’s associated with that.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>‘\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tickettailor.com/events/shapeshifterscinema/2202635\">Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/a>’ screens Sunday, June 21, at 2 p.m. at Shapeshifters Cinema (857 5th St., Oakland). Director Caroline Golum will be in attendance.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In Oakland, Jonathan Kiefer’s Vital Signs screens ‘new good films to watch with new good friends.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Jonathan Kiefer knows a little something about the inertia and distractions that can keep you from getting out of the house. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite being a bona fide film buff — Kiefer is a filmmaker, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/roxie-theater\">Roxie Theater\u003c/a> employee, and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/california-college-of-the-arts\">California College of the Arts\u003c/a> film professor — he was surprised “and a little sad” at how rarely he was actually going to the movies. Earlier this year, he decided to take matters into his own hands. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/\">Vital Signs Film Series\u003c/a> (aka “monthly proof of cinematic life”) launched last month at Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.shapeshifterscinema.com/\">Shapeshifters Cinema\u003c/a>, a 40-seat theater best known for its experimental offerings. What Kiefer pitched wasn’t their ordinary fare — 16mm shorts, expanded cinema events, DIY workshops — but Kathleen Quillian and Gilbert Guerrero, Shapeshifters’ founders, were game. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Outside of the experimental film and the programming that we do, how do we just keep expanding?” Gilbert says. “We have this space, it’s just sitting here empty.” Why not host a weekend matinee? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The series kicked off on May 2 with the prolific South Korean director Hong Sansoo’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://vitalsignsfilms.substack.com/p/may-3-what-does-that-nature-say-to\">What Does That Nature Say to You\u003c/a>\u003c/em>. A short animation by fellow CCA faculty member \u003ca href=\"https://www.kotaezawa.com/\">Kota Ezawa\u003c/a> opened the program. The series’ second offering, Caroline Golum’s \u003cem>Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/em>, screens this Sunday, June 21.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/QuKics1aoFc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/QuKics1aoFc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Vital Signs hopes to fill an untapped niche in the Bay Area film ecosystem. Not quite experimental and not quite mainstream, Vital Signs movies might be touring the international film festival circuit; they likely won’t be playing on a Bay Area screen anytime soon. Kiefer describes them as “adventurous stuff that is kind of indie, art house, slightly strange, noncommercial, very boutique offerings.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe if you’re lucky, they’ll wind up on the streaming platforms,” he explains. “But then with this type of film especially, it’s not as good just to watch it at home as it is to be in even a small room with just a few people.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Made on a budget of around $200,000, \u003cem>Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/em> tells the story of the 14th-century Christian mystic \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich\">Julian of Norwich\u003c/a>, who recounted her visions in what is now considered the oldest surviving English-language text written by a woman. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“You might think this is going to be cheeky to a point of detachment and super hipster, holding the audience at arm’s length, but it’s a very sincere piece,” Kiefer says. “And it’s really beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Golum, who’s based in Brooklyn, will be in attendance for a Q&A after the Shapeshifters screening.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1316\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000.jpg\" alt=\"small crowd in theater seats looking at screen with multiple projectors running behind them\" class=\"wp-image-13990808\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000-768x505.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/06/Too-Much-is-Never-Enough_02-06-25_2000-1536x1011.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">‘Too Much is Never Enough,’ a collaborative expanded cinema performance at Shapeshifters Cinema on Feb. 6, 2025 (Courtesy of Shapeshifters Cinema)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kiefer’s pitch came just as Shapeshifters was making its own ask. In March, the cinema launched a \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-shapeshifters-cinema-brewery-cafe\">GoFundMe\u003c/a> to raise $60,000 to help cover immediate expenses. “The biggest donor to our organization over the years has been an unnamed shadow donor,” the GoFundMe explains, “and that has been us — the founding directors — who have kept the engine running with regular financial infusions from out of our own pockets.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Founded in 2012, Shapeshifters Cinema started as a monthly experimental film series, first at Oakland’s Arbor Cafe, then at the Temescal Arts Center. Since 2019, they’ve operated a microcinema and brewery in a Victorian near Jack London Square (Guerrero is an award-winning brewer). In 2023 they took over the next-door cafe.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While workshop fees, rentals and food and beer sales help sustain the operation, Guerrero says Shapeshifters isn’t yet profitable. “From the business side of it, it’s just how do we get people to come in so we can pay the rent,” Guerrero says. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While the first Vital Signs screening didn’t have a huge turnout, Quillian says, the people who came \u003cem>were\u003c/em> first-time visitors. “That is something we’re excited about,” she says. “It’s going to open up space for people who are not necessarily into short experimental or performative work.” After all, it’s Shapeshifters’ fan base, now growing, that helped them raise over $53,000 in two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kiefer is well aware of the factors at play in the current arts funding landscape — and the importance of artist-run places like Shapeshifters. He tried to impart the lessons of indie filmmaking to his CCA students. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Make what you can with what you have,” he says he told them. “Understand that institutions may or may not be helpful, or if they are, it might be in a limited way or for a limited time. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13985413/california-college-of-the-arts-sfai-mills-art-school-closures\">closing of the school\u003c/a> seems like a brutal but effective example of that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Vital Signs puts that indie mentality into practice, building a community of adventurous moviegoers one hard-to-see film at a time. Ben Rivers’ \u003ca href=\"https://grasshopperfilm.com/film/mares-nest/\">\u003cem>Mare’s Nest\u003c/em>\u003c/a> is scheduled for July 5, Patrick Wang’s \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://keithuhlich.substack.com/p/a-rimbaud\">A. Rimbaud\u003c/a>\u003c/em> for Aug. 2. Future screenings will include Artemis Shaw’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.artemisshaw.com/eye\">\u003cem>Removal of the Eye\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and Sofia Bohdanowicz’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.sofiabohdanowicz.com/films-1/measures-for-a-funeral\">\u003cem>Measures for a Funeral\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s no accident the series launched in spring, Kiefer says: “You start to see flowers blooming, and there’s a hope that’s associated with that.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tickettailor.com/events/shapeshifterscinema/2202635\">Revelations of Divine Love\u003c/a>’ screens Sunday, June 21, at 2 p.m. at Shapeshifters Cinema (857 5th St., Oakland). Director Caroline Golum will be in attendance.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>What evil lurks in the drabbest of interiors?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The meme-rooted \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HjdiohVOik\">Backrooms\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is the latest movie to pull its mounting horrors out of liminal spaces. \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13988335/exit-8-movie-review-best-game-adaptation-horror-japan-genki-kawamura\">Exit 8\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, released earlier this year, was set entirely in a subway corridor. In \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em>, a struggling furniture salesperson discovers beneath his store an underground labyrinth, all lined with yellow wallpapered walls and fluorescent lighting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Where \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> came from is more interesting — and potentially meaningful — than the result. The movie, directed by 20-year-old YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons, is a fitfully unsettling nightmare that never convincingly builds beyond its creepy, dated-decor premise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> backstory is more intriguing. In 2019, an anonymous post on 4chan creepypasta — an online repository for internet-created urban legends — provided the initial image of the seemingly infinite Backrooms with a caption describing “nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Like many others, Parsons — who has posted under “Kane Pixels” — picked up the idea and ran with it. His YouTube series expanded on the 4chan post, adding a found footage approach. Eventually, A24 greenlit his movie, the big-screen product of an internet-born concept.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the hive mind of the internet can produce some glorious things, movies require closer to a single author. And \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em>, written by Will Soodik and produced by Osgood Perkins, struggles to retrofit a compelling story to match its disquietingly banal imagery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HjdiohVOik\n\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the not-exactly-proud owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, a sad and empty furniture store located in a 1990s strip mall. He has plenty of concerns — his failed architect aspirations, the end of his marriage, any customers at all — but unexplained electric troubles at the store also nag him. The lights keep flickering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Clark inspects the circuit breaker, there are odd, irregular breakers at the bottom of the panel. Who put them there? What are they for? If there’s one thing \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> gets spot on, it’s the mysteries of the circuit breaker. One night, Clark goes looking in the store’s lower floor when he unwittingly passes right through the wall, and into the Backrooms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wonderland it is not. The seemingly never-ending chambers almost resemble vacant, nondescript office spaces. But they’re stranger, like art installation versions of office space. There are piles of furniture, shrunken doors and disturbingly random things like a stop sign or a cardboard cutout with a cassette player saying hello in different languages. Clark later describes the rooms as though they were made “by a bunch of construction workers on acid.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man stands beside a pile of office furniture.\" class=\"wp-image-13990251\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chiwetel Ejiofor in ‘Backrooms.’ (A24)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The uncanny dimensions and strange recesses of modern workplaces have been a common motif lately, from \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13970452/season-two-severance-review-apple-tv-corporate-critique-ben-stiller\">Severance\u003c/a>\u003c/em> to \u003cem>The Chair Company\u003c/em>. And it’s hard not to see the endless iterations of the Backrooms as a metaphor for the internet itself.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Parsons pushes the setting into a psychological realm. One of the only other characters we see Clark interact with before he grows obsessed with exploring the rooms is his therapist, Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve). “We all have our loops, our habits,” she tells him in a session.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The subterranean labyrinth increasingly begins to resemble a warped version of Clark’s own looped psychology. Its many doors go deeper into his psyche, and Mary (whose new book is titled \u003cem>The Window Within\u003c/em>) becomes trapped too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1832\" height=\"1031\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13990236\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4.jpg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1832px) 100vw, 1832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Renate Reinsve in ‘Backrooms.’ (A24)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As a horror, fluorescent-lit riff on Michel Gondry’s \u003cem>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> doesn’t quite work. While the movie finds a potentially insightful pathway to a story, it can’t bridge its very physical, wall-to-wall-carpeted labyrinth with Clark’s mental state. A movie with so many doors ultimately can’t find the right one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite a paper-wall-thin concept, both Ejiofor and Reinsve give \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> some depth. Ejiofor has almost always been a supremely level-headed screen presence, but here embraces a latent capacity for fevered mania. Reinsve, the star of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13909549/the-worst-person-in-the-world-review\">The Worst Person in the World\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13983315/sentimental-value-movie-review-joachim-trier-drama-stellan-skarsgard\">Sentimental Value\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, proves especially absorbing in her first horror film. She gives the movie a slinky intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the real star is Danny Vermette’s production design. Banal and bizarre at once, the Backrooms serve as a mysterious rabbit hole. Horror films have long found trouble down the stairs, but the movies — like 2022’s \u003cem>Barbarian\u003c/em> — seem to be digging even deeper. It’s no wonder the movie gets lost down there, too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Backrooms’ is released nationwide on May 29, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The meme-rooted \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HjdiohVOik\">Backrooms\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is the latest movie to pull its mounting horrors out of liminal spaces. \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13988335/exit-8-movie-review-best-game-adaptation-horror-japan-genki-kawamura\">Exit 8\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, released earlier this year, was set entirely in a subway corridor. In \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em>, a struggling furniture salesperson discovers beneath his store an underground labyrinth, all lined with yellow wallpapered walls and fluorescent lighting.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Where \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> came from is more interesting — and potentially meaningful — than the result. The movie, directed by 20-year-old YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons, is a fitfully unsettling nightmare that never convincingly builds beyond its creepy, dated-decor premise.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> backstory is more intriguing. In 2019, an anonymous post on 4chan creepypasta — an online repository for internet-created urban legends — provided the initial image of the seemingly infinite Backrooms with a caption describing “nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Like many others, Parsons — who has posted under “Kane Pixels” — picked up the idea and ran with it. His YouTube series expanded on the 4chan post, adding a found footage approach. Eventually, A24 greenlit his movie, the big-screen product of an internet-born concept.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But while the hive mind of the internet can produce some glorious things, movies require closer to a single author. And \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em>, written by Will Soodik and produced by Osgood Perkins, struggles to retrofit a compelling story to match its disquietingly banal imagery.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the not-exactly-proud owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, a sad and empty furniture store located in a 1990s strip mall. He has plenty of concerns — his failed architect aspirations, the end of his marriage, any customers at all — but unexplained electric troubles at the store also nag him. The lights keep flickering.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When Clark inspects the circuit breaker, there are odd, irregular breakers at the bottom of the panel. Who put them there? What are they for? If there’s one thing \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> gets spot on, it’s the mysteries of the circuit breaker. One night, Clark goes looking in the store’s lower floor when he unwittingly passes right through the wall, and into the Backrooms.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Wonderland it is not. The seemingly never-ending chambers almost resemble vacant, nondescript office spaces. But they’re stranger, like art installation versions of office space. There are piles of furniture, shrunken doors and disturbingly random things like a stop sign or a cardboard cutout with a cassette player saying hello in different languages. Clark later describes the rooms as though they were made “by a bunch of construction workers on acid.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Wonderland it is not. The seemingly never-ending chambers almost resemble vacant, nondescript office spaces. But they’re stranger, like art installation versions of office space. There are piles of furniture, shrunken doors and disturbingly random things like a stop sign or a cardboard cutout with a cassette player saying hello in different languages. Clark later describes the rooms as though they were made “by a bunch of construction workers on acid.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The uncanny dimensions and strange recesses of modern workplaces have been a common motif lately, from \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13970452/season-two-severance-review-apple-tv-corporate-critique-ben-stiller\">Severance\u003c/a>\u003c/em> to \u003cem>The Chair Company\u003c/em>. And it’s hard not to see the endless iterations of the Backrooms as a metaphor for the internet itself.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But Parsons pushes the setting into a psychological realm. One of the only other characters we see Clark interact with before he grows obsessed with exploring the rooms is his therapist, Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve). “We all have our loops, our habits,” she tells him in a session.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The subterranean labyrinth increasingly begins to resemble a warped version of Clark’s own looped psychology. Its many doors go deeper into his psyche, and Mary (whose new book is titled \u003cem>The Window Within\u003c/em>) becomes trapped too.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Despite a paper-wall-thin concept, both Ejiofor and Reinsve give \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> some depth. Ejiofor has almost always been a supremely level-headed screen presence, but here embraces a latent capacity for fevered mania. Reinsve, the star of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13909549/the-worst-person-in-the-world-review\">The Worst Person in the World\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13983315/sentimental-value-movie-review-joachim-trier-drama-stellan-skarsgard\">Sentimental Value\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, proves especially absorbing in her first horror film. She gives the movie a slinky intelligence.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the real star is Danny Vermette’s production design. Banal and bizarre at once, the Backrooms serve as a mysterious rabbit hole. Horror films have long found trouble down the stairs, but the movies — like 2022’s \u003cem>Barbarian\u003c/em> — seem to be digging even deeper. It’s no wonder the movie gets lost down there, too.\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>What evil lurks in the drabbest of interiors?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The meme-rooted \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HjdiohVOik\">Backrooms\u003c/a>\u003c/em> is the latest movie to pull its mounting horrors out of liminal spaces. \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13988335/exit-8-movie-review-best-game-adaptation-horror-japan-genki-kawamura\">Exit 8\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, released earlier this year, was set entirely in a subway corridor. In \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em>, a struggling furniture salesperson discovers beneath his store an underground labyrinth, all lined with yellow wallpapered walls and fluorescent lighting.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Where \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> came from is more interesting — and potentially meaningful — than the result. The movie, directed by 20-year-old YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Kane Parsons, is a fitfully unsettling nightmare that never convincingly builds beyond its creepy, dated-decor premise.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> backstory is more intriguing. In 2019, an anonymous post on 4chan creepypasta — an online repository for internet-created urban legends — provided the initial image of the seemingly infinite Backrooms with a caption describing “nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Like many others, Parsons — who has posted under “Kane Pixels” — picked up the idea and ran with it. His YouTube series expanded on the 4chan post, adding a found footage approach. Eventually, A24 greenlit his movie, the big-screen product of an internet-born concept.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the hive mind of the internet can produce some glorious things, movies require closer to a single author. And \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em>, written by Will Soodik and produced by Osgood Perkins, struggles to retrofit a compelling story to match its disquietingly banal imagery.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/0HjdiohVOik'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/0HjdiohVOik'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/div>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the not-exactly-proud owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, a sad and empty furniture store located in a 1990s strip mall. He has plenty of concerns — his failed architect aspirations, the end of his marriage, any customers at all — but unexplained electric troubles at the store also nag him. The lights keep flickering.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When Clark inspects the circuit breaker, there are odd, irregular breakers at the bottom of the panel. Who put them there? What are they for? If there’s one thing \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> gets spot on, it’s the mysteries of the circuit breaker. One night, Clark goes looking in the store’s lower floor when he unwittingly passes right through the wall, and into the Backrooms.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Wonderland it is not. The seemingly never-ending chambers almost resemble vacant, nondescript office spaces. But they’re stranger, like art installation versions of office space. There are piles of furniture, shrunken doors and disturbingly random things like a stop sign or a cardboard cutout with a cassette player saying hello in different languages. Clark later describes the rooms as though they were made “by a bunch of construction workers on acid.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man stands beside a pile of office furniture.\" class=\"wp-image-13990251\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-6_2000-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Chiwetel Ejiofor in ‘Backrooms.’ (A24)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The uncanny dimensions and strange recesses of modern workplaces have been a common motif lately, from \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13970452/season-two-severance-review-apple-tv-corporate-critique-ben-stiller\">Severance\u003c/a>\u003c/em> to \u003cem>The Chair Company\u003c/em>. And it’s hard not to see the endless iterations of the Backrooms as a metaphor for the internet itself.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But Parsons pushes the setting into a psychological realm. One of the only other characters we see Clark interact with before he grows obsessed with exploring the rooms is his therapist, Mary Kline (Renate Reinsve). “We all have our loops, our habits,” she tells him in a session.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The subterranean labyrinth increasingly begins to resemble a warped version of Clark’s own looped psychology. Its many doors go deeper into his psyche, and Mary (whose new book is titled \u003cem>The Window Within\u003c/em>) becomes trapped too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1832\" height=\"1031\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13990236\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4.jpg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/backrooms-4-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1832px) 100vw, 1832px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Renate Reinsve in ‘Backrooms.’ (A24)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As a horror, fluorescent-lit riff on Michel Gondry’s \u003cem>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> doesn’t quite work. While the movie finds a potentially insightful pathway to a story, it can’t bridge its very physical, wall-to-wall-carpeted labyrinth with Clark’s mental state. A movie with so many doors ultimately can’t find the right one.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Despite a paper-wall-thin concept, both Ejiofor and Reinsve give \u003cem>Backrooms\u003c/em> some depth. Ejiofor has almost always been a supremely level-headed screen presence, but here embraces a latent capacity for fevered mania. Reinsve, the star of \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13909549/the-worst-person-in-the-world-review\">The Worst Person in the World\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13983315/sentimental-value-movie-review-joachim-trier-drama-stellan-skarsgard\">Sentimental Value\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, proves especially absorbing in her first horror film. She gives the movie a slinky intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the real star is Danny Vermette’s production design. Banal and bizarre at once, the Backrooms serve as a mysterious rabbit hole. Horror films have long found trouble down the stairs, but the movies — like 2022’s \u003cem>Barbarian\u003c/em> — seem to be digging even deeper. It’s no wonder the movie gets lost down there, too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003chr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Backrooms’ is released nationwide on May 29, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Can Boots Riley’s ‘I Love Boosters’ Make the Revolution Sexy?",
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"content": "\u003cp>When \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/boots-riley\">Boots Riley\u003c/a> looks back at his debut feature, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13836455/in-sorry-to-bother-you-an-alternate-universe-oakland-is-still-true-and-familiar\">\u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, it’s not the rave reviews, near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score or $18 million in box office revenue that stand out. It’s the messages he got from labor organizers. Dozens wrote to tell him they swayed their colleagues to form unions or authorize strikes after showing them his film, about a call center worker who discovers a shady corporate conspiracy to turn people into literal workhorses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a story of a guy in Baltimore who told me that there was going to be a 60-person show of hands on whether they want to make a union,” Riley tells KQED. “It was going to be kind of a nail-biter. … [Then] somebody yelled, ‘Equasapiens! Let’s be out!’ And then the whole crowd erupted in laughter, and every single person raised their hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Set in the Bay Area, Riley’s sophomore film \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> follows Corvette (Keke Palmer), Mariah (Taylour Paige) and Sade (Naomi Ackie) as they steal high-end designer clothes and resell them at discount prices. In their eyes, they’re doing fashion-forward (f)ilanthropy while keeping themselves financially afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before long, their cartoonish heists get them caught up in a rivalry with the elitist fashion mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore), whose lofty diatribes about her art cloak a conservative, tough-on-crime political agenda. The Velvet Gang, as the boosters are known, join forces with retail worker Violeta (Eiza González) and Chinese garment worker Jianhu (Poppy Liu) to take down Smith through a surreal scheme that unspools reality and unveils a heinous secret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using art to fuel a mass working-class movement has been an ambition of Riley’s since he got his start as a rapper in the early ’90s with his group, The Coup. With \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em>, the 55-year-old activist-turned-director arrives at a new height of his career: His first wide-release feature, with a star-studded cast, backing from prestige production company NEON and a $20 million budget, all to create a technicolor, eye-popping ode to the power of collective organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988896\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2000x879.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-160x70.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-768x338.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-1536x675.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2048x900.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Ackie, Keke Palmer, Poppy Liu and Taylour Paige in ‘I Love Boosters.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NEON)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Riley has spent years \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcrYJALWWLE&t=1s\">giving talks\u003c/a> about how, a century ago, labor strikes forced politicians to create basic social welfare programs that helped lift working people out of poverty. He wants to bring that back. “We need a mass, militant, radical labor movement that uses the withholding of labor as a tactic and strategy to affect policy change,” he says. With today’s income inequality \u003ca href=\"https://robertreich.substack.com/p/from-the-robber-barons-to-elon-musk\">drawing comparisons to the Gilded Age\u003c/a>, \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> is Riley’s bet on whether he can make the revolution sexy, and whether he can use the ultra-capitalist Hollywood system for his decidedly anti-capitalist ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What gets people to get involved in things is not anger or fear,” Riley says. “It’s optimism that there’s something that they can do. And so that’s what my writing normally is, is pointing to what actually can be done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Boots on the ground\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Long before he touched the microphone or picked up a camera, Riley was a community organizer. Born in Chicago and raised in Oakland by activist parents (his father, civil rights lawyer \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/lift-every-voice/article/Walter-Riley-16219770.php\">Walter Riley\u003c/a>, fought segregation in the South and later participated in San Francisco State University’s Third World Liberation strikes), Riley was 14 years old when neighborhood organizers recruited him and other youth to support Watsonville Cannery workers. He passed out flyers and helped organize rallies as the workers waged an \u003ca href=\"https://unityarchiveproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Victoria.pdf\">18-month strike\u003c/a> that became one of the biggest organized labor victories of the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riley’s activism didn’t stop, even as The Coup inked a major record deal and made their debut with the funky yet militant album \u003cem>Kill My Landlord\u003c/em> in 1993. In the mid ’90s, Riley helped lead a group called the Young Comrades to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1-k03bE8DY\">protest an anti-cruising law\u003c/a> that effectively criminalized Black youth hanging out at Lake Merritt. (A 1996 \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> op-ed chastised them for “rudely and repeatedly” interrupting city council meetings.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988894\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988894\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boots Riley on the set of ‘I Love Boosters.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NEON)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His frontline work continued in the 2000s, when he organized guerrilla hip-hop concerts to protest a state law that increased criminal penalties for juvenile offenders. In 2011, during Occupy Oakland, he helped coordinate tens of thousands of people in a general strike that shut down the Port of Oakland. And in the years since, even as his star rose in Hollywood, he’s taken to the streets at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13851697/boots-riley-spoke-at-the-oakland-teachers-strike-heres-what-he-said\">teachers strikes\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933709/oakland-filmmaker-boots-riley-on-hollywood-strikes-radicalizing-creative-class\">the Hollywood writers strike\u003c/a> and anti-ICE protests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea then was the same as my idea now,” Riley says of his evolution, “which is to get the working class involved in class struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The absurdity of the rat race\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>I Love Boosters, \u003c/em>Riley operates in a different mode than the political theorist version of himself that gives erudite speeches at rallies and in \u003cem>Democracy Now\u003c/em> interviews. As a screenwriter and director, he’s weirder and looser, submerging viewers in a candy-colored world where he amplifies every indignity of life as a low-wage worker. The effect is hilarious, yet maddening enough to make viewers want to join the characters on the picket line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Corvette and the Velvet Gang get jobs at Christie Smith’s fast-fashion chain, 30-second lunch breaks that start like track-and-field races leave them panting; their paychecks amount to chump change because they’re forced to buy designer outfits to wear on the job. Later, when we meet Jianhu, we find out the Chinese factory workers are sick because Smith orders them to distress denim by sandblasting it with absurdly large amounts of industrial chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13989010\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13989010 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actress Eiza González (left), Boots Riley (center), director of the movie “I Love Boosters,” and actress Poppy Liu (right) pose at a red carpet event for the movie ‘I Love Boosters’ near the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is part of Boots’ genius in that he wields satire as a genre really expertly,” says Poppy Liu, whose sharp-tongued Jianhu is an unexpected moral center of the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corvette loses her housing and is squatting in an abandoned fast-food restaurant, unable to see the bigger picture of class solidarity because her mounting financial problems pose the more immediate threat. Her fixation on Smith feels personal, tinged with admiration and jealousy. It’s Jianhu who realizes that joining Corvette in her vendetta can lead to massive gains for exploited laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two characters’ dynamic embodies a lesson about coalition-building that Riley learned in his organizing days. “People start making sacrifices for each other because they start understanding how intertwined things are,” he says. “It starts with understanding that a situation in which people have solidarity is helping your own personal interests as well. And from that grows a different kind of consciousness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, those themes were the biggest thing that got me excited about the movie,” Liu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making class solidarity accessible\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Other cast members had different entry points into the sometimes heady political ideas in \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em>. For Eiza González, it was personal conversations with Riley about her family in Mexico; she shared that her mom was one of eight children from a humble family that couldn’t afford basic necessities like healthcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>González’s cool-girl Violeta is a secret wonk who delivers a passionate monologue about the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism at a crucial turning point in the film. She mustered the fire for her role as conversations on set turned to how, across cultures and borders, working people struggle to get by as the 1% makes record profits from their labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13989008\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13989008 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actress Eiza González poses at a red carpet event for the movie, ‘I Love Boosters,’ near the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He weirdly built the characters with us without us realizing, if that makes sense, which was amazing,” González says. “It was a different experience, but once you were in the character, you were believing it at its core.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While LaKeith Stanfield, who starred in \u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em>, shares many of Riley’s viewpoints on class inequality, he brings a wackiness and levity to \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> that helps make the film accessible and entertaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13989011\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13989011 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actor LaKeith Stanfield poses at a red carpet event for the movie ‘I Love Boosters’ near the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Anytime I can just be a part of a Boots Riley movie, I mean, even if I’m playing someone’s toe, I’m glad to be there,” Stanfield says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His character is a supernatural being who uses his oral sex skills for nefarious ends, and he brings much-needed hilarity to a story that’s largely about labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope that people can be entertained and have a good laugh and gawk at the spectacle,” Stanfield says, “but also maybe look into some of our industry and … what effects we have on the global market and global labor. And also maybe take a look at, hopefully, the importance of us being a unit and being together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Thorny questions around Hollywood money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Making a wide-release feature film with a not-so-secret socialist agenda has its challenges — chiefly, getting it funded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all who are eager to praise Riley’s activist bona fides (“He’s always been an anti-capitalist baddie,” Liu says), some observers on social media have criticized his willingness to take money from the film’s executive producer, Annapurna Pictures founder and Oracle heiress Megan Ellison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13988897 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2000x974.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-160x78.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-768x374.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-1536x748.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2048x998.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige and Keke Palmer star in ‘I Love Boosters.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NEON)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ellison hasn’t donated to political campaigns and \u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/megan-ellison-second-coming-nimona-1235842667/\">tends to finance left-leaning prestige cinema\u003c/a>. But her father, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/06/nx-s1-5560216/who-is-larry-ellison-the-billionaire-trump-friend-whos-part-of-the-tiktok-takeover\">far-right billionaire Larry Ellison\u003c/a>, and her brother, David, head a media empire that controls a massive swath of television, film and social media, including Paramount, TikTok and, if a pending deal goes through, Warner Brothers Discovery. The senior Ellison has been accused of \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-05-08/press-freedom-groups-allege-larry-ellison-has-promised-to-fire-cnn-anchors\">wielding his power to silence President Donald Trump’s critics\u003c/a>. So the source of Megan Ellison’s wealth has \u003ca href=\"https://brokeassstuart.com/p/wait-they-re-trying-to-cancel-boots-riley-now\">drawn scrutiny from some would-be supporters of Riley’s work\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Has Riley ever felt tension around using the Hollywood system to tell his anti-capitalist stories? He says no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not trying to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a pure way for you to take in your entertainment,’” he says.[aside postID=arts_13989013 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00657_TV_qed.jpg']“From the theater chains to the streamers, to the studios and funders big enough to do something that’s big enough for millions of people to see — you’re there,” he continues. “You’re mixed up in everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em> started its theatrical run in only 100 theaters, \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> will hit 2,500 screens Memorial Day weekend. After its world premiere at South By Southwest, Riley has been building word-of-mouth hype by throwing small screenings on college campuses, where he’s shown up to talk to students personally. But grassroots campaigning alone can’t create the magnitude of impact he’s aiming for, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don’t have a goal of revolution, then it’s easier to say, ‘Hey, I just need to have my hands clean of this, and let me make a commune in the woods,’” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riley is hopeful that the kind of radical social change he’s spent his life advocating for will come. He points to the post-pandemic strike wave, during which the U.S. saw a \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/major-strike-activity-in-2023/\">280% increase in strikes in 2023 from the year before\u003c/a>. More recently, in January of this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/minneapolis-minnesotas-general-strike-ice-border-patrol-trump/\">Minnesota unions and activists mounted a one-day general strike\u003c/a> to protest ICE abuses in their city, inspiring similar actions across the nation. For Riley, it’s only the beginning. With \u003cem>I Love Boosters, \u003c/em>he wants to remind viewers of their ability to stand together and tip the scales of power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want the result of millions of people getting involved in class struggle, joining organizations, all of that,” he says, “because that is the only thing that can actually change the situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "With his stylish new satire, the Oakland director places a bet that art can fuel a mass labor movement. \r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/boots-riley\">Boots Riley\u003c/a> looks back at his debut feature, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13836455/in-sorry-to-bother-you-an-alternate-universe-oakland-is-still-true-and-familiar\">\u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, it’s not the rave reviews, near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score or $18 million in box office revenue that stand out. It’s the messages he got from labor organizers. Dozens wrote to tell him they swayed their colleagues to form unions or authorize strikes after showing them his film, about a call center worker who discovers a shady corporate conspiracy to turn people into literal workhorses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a story of a guy in Baltimore who told me that there was going to be a 60-person show of hands on whether they want to make a union,” Riley tells KQED. “It was going to be kind of a nail-biter. … [Then] somebody yelled, ‘Equasapiens! Let’s be out!’ And then the whole crowd erupted in laughter, and every single person raised their hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Set in the Bay Area, Riley’s sophomore film \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> follows Corvette (Keke Palmer), Mariah (Taylour Paige) and Sade (Naomi Ackie) as they steal high-end designer clothes and resell them at discount prices. In their eyes, they’re doing fashion-forward (f)ilanthropy while keeping themselves financially afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before long, their cartoonish heists get them caught up in a rivalry with the elitist fashion mogul Christie Smith (Demi Moore), whose lofty diatribes about her art cloak a conservative, tough-on-crime political agenda. The Velvet Gang, as the boosters are known, join forces with retail worker Violeta (Eiza González) and Chinese garment worker Jianhu (Poppy Liu) to take down Smith through a surreal scheme that unspools reality and unveils a heinous secret.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using art to fuel a mass working-class movement has been an ambition of Riley’s since he got his start as a rapper in the early ’90s with his group, The Coup. With \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em>, the 55-year-old activist-turned-director arrives at a new height of his career: His first wide-release feature, with a star-studded cast, backing from prestige production company NEON and a $20 million budget, all to create a technicolor, eye-popping ode to the power of collective organizing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988896\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2000x879.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-160x70.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-768x338.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-1536x675.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_03_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2048x900.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Ackie, Keke Palmer, Poppy Liu and Taylour Paige in ‘I Love Boosters.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NEON)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Riley has spent years \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcrYJALWWLE&t=1s\">giving talks\u003c/a> about how, a century ago, labor strikes forced politicians to create basic social welfare programs that helped lift working people out of poverty. He wants to bring that back. “We need a mass, militant, radical labor movement that uses the withholding of labor as a tactic and strategy to affect policy change,” he says. With today’s income inequality \u003ca href=\"https://robertreich.substack.com/p/from-the-robber-barons-to-elon-musk\">drawing comparisons to the Gilded Age\u003c/a>, \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> is Riley’s bet on whether he can make the revolution sexy, and whether he can use the ultra-capitalist Hollywood system for his decidedly anti-capitalist ends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What gets people to get involved in things is not anger or fear,” Riley says. “It’s optimism that there’s something that they can do. And so that’s what my writing normally is, is pointing to what actually can be done.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Boots on the ground\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Long before he touched the microphone or picked up a camera, Riley was a community organizer. Born in Chicago and raised in Oakland by activist parents (his father, civil rights lawyer \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/lift-every-voice/article/Walter-Riley-16219770.php\">Walter Riley\u003c/a>, fought segregation in the South and later participated in San Francisco State University’s Third World Liberation strikes), Riley was 14 years old when neighborhood organizers recruited him and other youth to support Watsonville Cannery workers. He passed out flyers and helped organize rallies as the workers waged an \u003ca href=\"https://unityarchiveproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Victoria.pdf\">18-month strike\u003c/a> that became one of the biggest organized labor victories of the 1980s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riley’s activism didn’t stop, even as The Coup inked a major record deal and made their debut with the funky yet militant album \u003cem>Kill My Landlord\u003c/em> in 1993. In the mid ’90s, Riley helped lead a group called the Young Comrades to \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1-k03bE8DY\">protest an anti-cruising law\u003c/a> that effectively criminalized Black youth hanging out at Lake Merritt. (A 1996 \u003cem>Oakland Tribune\u003c/em> op-ed chastised them for “rudely and repeatedly” interrupting city council meetings.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988894\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988894\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-2000x1334.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_BTS_02_Courtesy-of-NEON-2048x1366.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boots Riley on the set of ‘I Love Boosters.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NEON)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His frontline work continued in the 2000s, when he organized guerrilla hip-hop concerts to protest a state law that increased criminal penalties for juvenile offenders. In 2011, during Occupy Oakland, he helped coordinate tens of thousands of people in a general strike that shut down the Port of Oakland. And in the years since, even as his star rose in Hollywood, he’s taken to the streets at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13851697/boots-riley-spoke-at-the-oakland-teachers-strike-heres-what-he-said\">teachers strikes\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13933709/oakland-filmmaker-boots-riley-on-hollywood-strikes-radicalizing-creative-class\">the Hollywood writers strike\u003c/a> and anti-ICE protests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea then was the same as my idea now,” Riley says of his evolution, “which is to get the working class involved in class struggle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The absurdity of the rat race\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>I Love Boosters, \u003c/em>Riley operates in a different mode than the political theorist version of himself that gives erudite speeches at rallies and in \u003cem>Democracy Now\u003c/em> interviews. As a screenwriter and director, he’s weirder and looser, submerging viewers in a candy-colored world where he amplifies every indignity of life as a low-wage worker. The effect is hilarious, yet maddening enough to make viewers want to join the characters on the picket line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Corvette and the Velvet Gang get jobs at Christie Smith’s fast-fashion chain, 30-second lunch breaks that start like track-and-field races leave them panting; their paychecks amount to chump change because they’re forced to buy designer outfits to wear on the job. Later, when we meet Jianhu, we find out the Chinese factory workers are sick because Smith orders them to distress denim by sandblasting it with absurdly large amounts of industrial chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13989010\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13989010 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00644_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actress Eiza González (left), Boots Riley (center), director of the movie “I Love Boosters,” and actress Poppy Liu (right) pose at a red carpet event for the movie ‘I Love Boosters’ near the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is part of Boots’ genius in that he wields satire as a genre really expertly,” says Poppy Liu, whose sharp-tongued Jianhu is an unexpected moral center of the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corvette loses her housing and is squatting in an abandoned fast-food restaurant, unable to see the bigger picture of class solidarity because her mounting financial problems pose the more immediate threat. Her fixation on Smith feels personal, tinged with admiration and jealousy. It’s Jianhu who realizes that joining Corvette in her vendetta can lead to massive gains for exploited laborers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two characters’ dynamic embodies a lesson about coalition-building that Riley learned in his organizing days. “People start making sacrifices for each other because they start understanding how intertwined things are,” he says. “It starts with understanding that a situation in which people have solidarity is helping your own personal interests as well. And from that grows a different kind of consciousness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Honestly, those themes were the biggest thing that got me excited about the movie,” Liu says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making class solidarity accessible\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Other cast members had different entry points into the sometimes heady political ideas in \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em>. For Eiza González, it was personal conversations with Riley about her family in Mexico; she shared that her mom was one of eight children from a humble family that couldn’t afford basic necessities like healthcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>González’s cool-girl Violeta is a secret wonk who delivers a passionate monologue about the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism at a crucial turning point in the film. She mustered the fire for her role as conversations on set turned to how, across cultures and borders, working people struggle to get by as the 1% makes record profits from their labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13989008\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13989008 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00277_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actress Eiza González poses at a red carpet event for the movie, ‘I Love Boosters,’ near the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He weirdly built the characters with us without us realizing, if that makes sense, which was amazing,” González says. “It was a different experience, but once you were in the character, you were believing it at its core.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While LaKeith Stanfield, who starred in \u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em>, shares many of Riley’s viewpoints on class inequality, he brings a wackiness and levity to \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> that helps make the film accessible and entertaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13989011\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13989011 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/260428-iloveboostersredcarpet00222_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actor LaKeith Stanfield poses at a red carpet event for the movie ‘I Love Boosters’ near the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on April 28, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Anytime I can just be a part of a Boots Riley movie, I mean, even if I’m playing someone’s toe, I’m glad to be there,” Stanfield says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His character is a supernatural being who uses his oral sex skills for nefarious ends, and he brings much-needed hilarity to a story that’s largely about labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I hope that people can be entertained and have a good laugh and gawk at the spectacle,” Stanfield says, “but also maybe look into some of our industry and … what effects we have on the global market and global labor. And also maybe take a look at, hopefully, the importance of us being a unit and being together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Thorny questions around Hollywood money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Making a wide-release feature film with a not-so-secret socialist agenda has its challenges — chiefly, getting it funded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all who are eager to praise Riley’s activist bona fides (“He’s always been an anti-capitalist baddie,” Liu says), some observers on social media have criticized his willingness to take money from the film’s executive producer, Annapurna Pictures founder and Oracle heiress Megan Ellison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13988897 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1247\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2000x974.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-160x78.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-768x374.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-1536x748.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/I-LOVE-BOOSTERS_Still_01_Cropped_Courtesy-of-NEON-2048x998.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige and Keke Palmer star in ‘I Love Boosters.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NEON)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ellison hasn’t donated to political campaigns and \u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/megan-ellison-second-coming-nimona-1235842667/\">tends to finance left-leaning prestige cinema\u003c/a>. But her father, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/06/nx-s1-5560216/who-is-larry-ellison-the-billionaire-trump-friend-whos-part-of-the-tiktok-takeover\">far-right billionaire Larry Ellison\u003c/a>, and her brother, David, head a media empire that controls a massive swath of television, film and social media, including Paramount, TikTok and, if a pending deal goes through, Warner Brothers Discovery. The senior Ellison has been accused of \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2026-05-08/press-freedom-groups-allege-larry-ellison-has-promised-to-fire-cnn-anchors\">wielding his power to silence President Donald Trump’s critics\u003c/a>. So the source of Megan Ellison’s wealth has \u003ca href=\"https://brokeassstuart.com/p/wait-they-re-trying-to-cancel-boots-riley-now\">drawn scrutiny from some would-be supporters of Riley’s work\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Has Riley ever felt tension around using the Hollywood system to tell his anti-capitalist stories? He says no.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not trying to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve got a pure way for you to take in your entertainment,’” he says.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“From the theater chains to the streamers, to the studios and funders big enough to do something that’s big enough for millions of people to see — you’re there,” he continues. “You’re mixed up in everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003cem>Sorry to Bother You\u003c/em> started its theatrical run in only 100 theaters, \u003cem>I Love Boosters\u003c/em> will hit 2,500 screens Memorial Day weekend. After its world premiere at South By Southwest, Riley has been building word-of-mouth hype by throwing small screenings on college campuses, where he’s shown up to talk to students personally. But grassroots campaigning alone can’t create the magnitude of impact he’s aiming for, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don’t have a goal of revolution, then it’s easier to say, ‘Hey, I just need to have my hands clean of this, and let me make a commune in the woods,’” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Riley is hopeful that the kind of radical social change he’s spent his life advocating for will come. He points to the post-pandemic strike wave, during which the U.S. saw a \u003ca href=\"https://www.epi.org/publication/major-strike-activity-in-2023/\">280% increase in strikes in 2023 from the year before\u003c/a>. More recently, in January of this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/minneapolis-minnesotas-general-strike-ice-border-patrol-trump/\">Minnesota unions and activists mounted a one-day general strike\u003c/a> to protest ICE abuses in their city, inspiring similar actions across the nation. For Riley, it’s only the beginning. With \u003cem>I Love Boosters, \u003c/em>he wants to remind viewers of their ability to stand together and tip the scales of power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want the result of millions of people getting involved in class struggle, joining organizations, all of that,” he says, “because that is the only thing that can actually change the situation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "In ‘Is God Is,’ Black Women’s Revenge Becomes Spiritual",
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"content": "\u003cp>What does it mean to be born of violence?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her debut \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/film\">thriller\u003c/a> \u003cem>Is God Is\u003c/em>, director Aleshea Harris explores this question through the relationship of two twins, Anaia (Mallori Johnson) and Racine (Kara Young). Their father, the Monster, (played with sinister precision by Sterling K. Brown), attempts to kill their mother (Vivica A. Fox) by setting her on fire. In the process, he physically and emotionally scars his young children, who try to save her. Their estranged, disfigured mother later summons them to kill him in revenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anaia and Racine (or Naia and Cine for short) both bear marks from the damage, but in different ways. While Naia’s face is almost fully covered in visible burn wounds that draw disgust from onlookers, she’s also the softer twin — the sensitive, quiet one. Racine is only scarred on her arm, but she develops a fiery disposition, and is more prone to raw rage, roughness and violence. She even seems to revel in it at points.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the twins attempt to make sense of their complicated past in foster homes, their mother invites them to see her for the first time in years. Through this journey to the South, we experience their deep, sometimes unspoken bond, in which they hear each other’s thoughts and questions, and answer silently, with captions on the screen. These nonverbal exchanges, combined with poetic voiceovers, foley and well-curated music cues, create a distinct sonic, visual world that’s striking and original.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/pgtdkuNFoKk?si=hVNtYjyKARRhfc4a\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this film, which is based on Harris’ award-winning play, God is a Black woman, a Black mother. She’s damaged but also profound. In one scene, multiple Black women braid Ruby the God’s hair as she lies on her deathbed. The clinking sound of their long nails felt comforting to me, but this pairing of Black matriarchy and holiness may be controversial for some viewers, especially those not used to seeing Black women exalted in this way onscreen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the film engages with the divine status of Black women, it is stylistically reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s revenge thriller \u003cem>Kill Bill\u003c/em>, and even Denis Villeneuve’s \u003cem>Dune\u003c/em> series, where beauty and emotion mix with the grotesque, bizarre and unsightly. In another scene, the Monster’s mistress Divine the Healer (Erika Alexander) shows Racine and Anaia an elaborate altar dedicated to him, proving that no matter how much harm this man inflicts, he’s still loved and lusted after. [aside postid='arts_13989265' hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/copy-of-6-book-covers.jpeg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes the film interesting is its interrogation of patriarchal violence against Black women. At a time when we’re seeing increased coverage of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebony.com/call-it-what-it-is-black-femicide/\">Black femicide\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Is God Is\u003c/em> makes space for the unfiltered rage and pain that some Black women carry. In an early scene when Racine and Anaia visit their mother, the hair-braiders in the room pull back the covers to reveal the horror of Ruby the God’s scars on her legs, which still burn with smoke. We see the two sisters’ faces consumed with emotion, spurring their need to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does it mean to be a Black woman with sadness, grief and rage in this current time? As we read more headlines about Black women murdered by their partners, where does our rage go? Is it allowed to be used in our defense? Are we allowed to act in our own self-defense? Or are we supposed to just keep it inside, where it builds into a mound of pain? These questions came to my mind as I watched the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet I wasn’t always sure if the violence I was seeing onscreen had meaning. Throughout most of the film, we mainly see glimpses of Anaia and Racine’s father, the Monster, in close shots of his lips, face and legs. By the end of the film, I had no feelings about him, except for that he seemed like a psychopath. When Racine and Anaia got their revenge, it felt empty to me because his character wasn’t developed enough for me to care. I would’ve loved to see more of a backstory for the twins’ parents, in textured, complicated flashback scenes with their daughters to build more tension. [aside postid='arts_13989273' hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/DSC01205.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, I really leaned into the fun, soft and unexpected moments between the twins as they sat on the hood of their car, walked through a field or talked about Naia’s love life in their bedroom. Their long Dickies shorts, white tank tops and blond box braids contained vibrant cultural textures that I responded to. As I sat in the theater watching the film, I was drawn to the fiery and warm rapport between the twins, and I wanted to see them both make it out of this dangerous journey alive. Their complicated relationship is the standout element of the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is God Is\u003c/em> asks us to see the beauty and spiritual presence in Black women, who are scarred, both physically and emotionally, by men in our communities. We don’t often see that angst captured in this way, which makes this film distinct in its handling. Here, Black women draw blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one scene, Cine asks Naia: “You ever wanted to scrape off your scars to see what’s underneath?” The answer to that question comes in a poetic, uplifting surprise in the film, but not before a heartbreaking climax which seems to confront whether violent revenge will also consume the person seeking it. The weight of carrying this grief, rage and pain just might consume us all.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Is God Is’ hits theaters May 14, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this film, which is based on Harris’ award-winning play, God is a Black woman, a Black mother. She’s damaged but also profound. In one scene, multiple Black women braid Ruby the God’s hair as she lies on her deathbed. The clinking sound of their long nails felt comforting to me, but this pairing of Black matriarchy and holiness may be controversial for some viewers, especially those not used to seeing Black women exalted in this way onscreen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the film engages with the divine status of Black women, it is stylistically reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s revenge thriller \u003cem>Kill Bill\u003c/em>, and even Denis Villeneuve’s \u003cem>Dune\u003c/em> series, where beauty and emotion mix with the grotesque, bizarre and unsightly. In another scene, the Monster’s mistress Divine the Healer (Erika Alexander) shows Racine and Anaia an elaborate altar dedicated to him, proving that no matter how much harm this man inflicts, he’s still loved and lusted after. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What makes the film interesting is its interrogation of patriarchal violence against Black women. At a time when we’re seeing increased coverage of \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebony.com/call-it-what-it-is-black-femicide/\">Black femicide\u003c/a>, \u003cem>Is God Is\u003c/em> makes space for the unfiltered rage and pain that some Black women carry. In an early scene when Racine and Anaia visit their mother, the hair-braiders in the room pull back the covers to reveal the horror of Ruby the God’s scars on her legs, which still burn with smoke. We see the two sisters’ faces consumed with emotion, spurring their need to act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does it mean to be a Black woman with sadness, grief and rage in this current time? As we read more headlines about Black women murdered by their partners, where does our rage go? Is it allowed to be used in our defense? Are we allowed to act in our own self-defense? Or are we supposed to just keep it inside, where it builds into a mound of pain? These questions came to my mind as I watched the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet I wasn’t always sure if the violence I was seeing onscreen had meaning. Throughout most of the film, we mainly see glimpses of Anaia and Racine’s father, the Monster, in close shots of his lips, face and legs. By the end of the film, I had no feelings about him, except for that he seemed like a psychopath. When Racine and Anaia got their revenge, it felt empty to me because his character wasn’t developed enough for me to care. I would’ve loved to see more of a backstory for the twins’ parents, in textured, complicated flashback scenes with their daughters to build more tension. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, I really leaned into the fun, soft and unexpected moments between the twins as they sat on the hood of their car, walked through a field or talked about Naia’s love life in their bedroom. Their long Dickies shorts, white tank tops and blond box braids contained vibrant cultural textures that I responded to. As I sat in the theater watching the film, I was drawn to the fiery and warm rapport between the twins, and I wanted to see them both make it out of this dangerous journey alive. Their complicated relationship is the standout element of the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Is God Is\u003c/em> asks us to see the beauty and spiritual presence in Black women, who are scarred, both physically and emotionally, by men in our communities. We don’t often see that angst captured in this way, which makes this film distinct in its handling. Here, Black women draw blood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one scene, Cine asks Naia: “You ever wanted to scrape off your scars to see what’s underneath?” The answer to that question comes in a poetic, uplifting surprise in the film, but not before a heartbreaking climax which seems to confront whether violent revenge will also consume the person seeking it. The weight of carrying this grief, rage and pain just might consume us all.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Is God Is’ hits theaters May 14, 2026.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/maya-angelou\">Maya Angelou\u003c/a> is regarded world over as an American literary icon, but fewer people know that she was also a director and screenwriter. Kyéra Sterling, a doctoral candidate at Stanford, scoured numerous archives for Angelou’s rarely seen films, two of which she’s bringing to the university for \u003ca href=\"https://events.stanford.edu/event/but-some-of-us-are-brave-a-black-womens-film-festival\">But Some of Us Are Brave: A Black Women’s Film Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that so much of Angelou’s filmmaking and work trying to get behind the camera had to do with her own conviction that the work of poetics exists way beyond the page,” says Sterling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Some of Us Are Brave kicks off on April 10 at 7 p.m. with a talk with acclaimed author and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib; sculptor and sonic artist Yétúndé Olágbajú; and choreographer Amara Tabor-Smith, moderated by Stanford’s Sterling and Bryn Evans, who co-lead the university’s Black Studies Collective. [aside postid='arts_13988319']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the conversation, they’ll screen \u003cem>The Tapestry\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Circles\u003c/em>, two short films written by Alexis DeVeaux and directed by Angelou, who became the first Black woman to join the Directors Guild of America in 1975. These coming-of-age stories about young Black women originally broadcast in 1976 on KCET, Los Angeles’ PBS affiliate. The films haven’t been screened since 2021, when they were preserved at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The festival continues on April 11 with a conversation with Oakland filmmaker Cheryl Fabio, whose recent documentaries cover homelessness in Alameda County and West Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13809453/evolutionary-blues-resurrects-west-oaklands-musical-legacy\">overlooked blues legacy.\u003c/a> A screening of Fabio’s first film will follow. \u003cem>Rainbow Black: Poet Sarah W. Fabio\u003c/em> offers an intimate portrait of the filmmaker’s mother, an influential poet, educator and Black Arts Movement writer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That film, too, proved challenging to track down in Stanford’s archives. That many of the works featured in But Some of Us Are Brave were nearly lost to time, Sterling says, is a continuation of the same systemic issues that kept Black women out of the film world in the first place. To Sterling, it underscores the need for events like these.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of the kind of infatuation that art house cinema can have with auteurs, and the way that Hollywood is really specific in what it wants as well, I think these things just fall through the cracks,” Sterling says. [aside postid='arts_13988241']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sterling became inspired to make these rare films available to the public after she watched Pratibha Parmar’s \u003cem>A Place of Rage\u003c/em>, a 1991 documentary that includes interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. After seeing the film, Sterling learned that it was made available on the Criterion Channel thanks in large part to Hanif Abdurraqib’s advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s actually what gave me the tenacity to be like ‘Wait, I had just heard about these [Maya Angelou] teleplays over at UCLA. Like let me get ’em,’” Sterling says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A Place of Rage\u003c/em> screens at But Some of Us Are Brave on April 11, along with \u003cem>Spin Cycle\u003c/em>, a 1991 short film about Black lesbian identity by Oakland’s Aarin Burch.[aside postid='arts_13987669']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Stanford’s Oshman Hall, the free event will bring together the campus community, artists and film lovers from all over the Bay Area. Sterling hopes it’ll generate some fruitful conversations about how Black women tell and preserve their own stories, and how film can be part of advocacy during challenging political times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t keep pretending that everything is normal,” she says. “Let’s really dig into what this moment means, and also recognize that we can do that without sort of feeling like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re in this unprecedented time.’ I think we have to look back and think about the notes and the advice and the lineage that we are a part of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8vt5XAZKBkKFzzU\">But Some of Us Are Brave\u003c/a> takes place at Stanford University’s Oshman Hall (355 Roth Way) on April 10, 7–10 p.m. and April 11, noon–4 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/tag/maya-angelou\">Maya Angelou\u003c/a> is regarded world over as an American literary icon, but fewer people know that she was also a director and screenwriter. Kyéra Sterling, a doctoral candidate at Stanford, scoured numerous archives for Angelou’s rarely seen films, two of which she’s bringing to the university for \u003ca href=\"https://events.stanford.edu/event/but-some-of-us-are-brave-a-black-womens-film-festival\">But Some of Us Are Brave: A Black Women’s Film Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that so much of Angelou’s filmmaking and work trying to get behind the camera had to do with her own conviction that the work of poetics exists way beyond the page,” says Sterling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Some of Us Are Brave kicks off on April 10 at 7 p.m. with a talk with acclaimed author and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib; sculptor and sonic artist Yétúndé Olágbajú; and choreographer Amara Tabor-Smith, moderated by Stanford’s Sterling and Bryn Evans, who co-lead the university’s Black Studies Collective. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the conversation, they’ll screen \u003cem>The Tapestry\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Circles\u003c/em>, two short films written by Alexis DeVeaux and directed by Angelou, who became the first Black woman to join the Directors Guild of America in 1975. These coming-of-age stories about young Black women originally broadcast in 1976 on KCET, Los Angeles’ PBS affiliate. The films haven’t been screened since 2021, when they were preserved at UCLA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The festival continues on April 11 with a conversation with Oakland filmmaker Cheryl Fabio, whose recent documentaries cover homelessness in Alameda County and West Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13809453/evolutionary-blues-resurrects-west-oaklands-musical-legacy\">overlooked blues legacy.\u003c/a> A screening of Fabio’s first film will follow. \u003cem>Rainbow Black: Poet Sarah W. Fabio\u003c/em> offers an intimate portrait of the filmmaker’s mother, an influential poet, educator and Black Arts Movement writer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That film, too, proved challenging to track down in Stanford’s archives. That many of the works featured in But Some of Us Are Brave were nearly lost to time, Sterling says, is a continuation of the same systemic issues that kept Black women out of the film world in the first place. To Sterling, it underscores the need for events like these.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because of the kind of infatuation that art house cinema can have with auteurs, and the way that Hollywood is really specific in what it wants as well, I think these things just fall through the cracks,” Sterling says. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sterling became inspired to make these rare films available to the public after she watched Pratibha Parmar’s \u003cem>A Place of Rage\u003c/em>, a 1991 documentary that includes interviews with Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker. After seeing the film, Sterling learned that it was made available on the Criterion Channel thanks in large part to Hanif Abdurraqib’s advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s actually what gave me the tenacity to be like ‘Wait, I had just heard about these [Maya Angelou] teleplays over at UCLA. Like let me get ’em,’” Sterling says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A Place of Rage\u003c/em> screens at But Some of Us Are Brave on April 11, along with \u003cem>Spin Cycle\u003c/em>, a 1991 short film about Black lesbian identity by Oakland’s Aarin Burch.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Stanford’s Oshman Hall, the free event will bring together the campus community, artists and film lovers from all over the Bay Area. Sterling hopes it’ll generate some fruitful conversations about how Black women tell and preserve their own stories, and how film can be part of advocacy during challenging political times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t keep pretending that everything is normal,” she says. “Let’s really dig into what this moment means, and also recognize that we can do that without sort of feeling like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re in this unprecedented time.’ I think we have to look back and think about the notes and the advice and the lineage that we are a part of.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8vt5XAZKBkKFzzU\">But Some of Us Are Brave\u003c/a> takes place at Stanford University’s Oshman Hall (355 Roth Way) on April 10, 7–10 p.m. and April 11, noon–4 p.m.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "BAMPFA Spotlights Lucrecia Martel’s Parables of Middle-Class Desperation",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/headless-woman\">The Headless Woman\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2008), Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel’s disturbing third feature, opens on three boys and a dog running and playing in the sun alongside a semi-rural two-lane highway. From the very first frame — there are 24 in a second, remember — the filmmaker thrusts us into the heightened immediacy of \u003cem>now\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing of particular importance seems to be taking place, or maybe we’re not attuned to it. The soundtrack pops with shouts and barks and, on a subliminal wavelength, also unnerves us. Our antennae detect a danger in the vicinity, or on the horizon, that makes us shift uncomfortably in our seat. We are already immersed and, to Martel’s way of thinking, complicit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most acclaimed and unsettling filmmakers working today, Martel is the focus of a Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive career retrospective timed to her current residency at UC Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/lucrecia-martel-un-destino-comun\">Lucrecia Martel: Un destino común\u003c/a> opens Saturday, April 4 with her stunning debut \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/cienaga\">La ciénaga\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2001) and concludes Sunday, April 19 with her most recent feature \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/zama\">Zama\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2017), the odd and fascinating tale of a frustrated Spanish functionary losing his bearings in colonial Paraguay. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988252\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000.jpg\" alt=\"small crowd looks down hillside at white tent\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988252\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Lucrecia Martel’s ‘Our Land/Nuestra Tierra,’ 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The series also includes a sold-out screening of Martel’s 2025 documentary \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/our-land-nuestra-tierra\">Our Land/Nuestra Tierra\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, which plays April 16 at the \u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/our-land-nuestra-tierra/\">Roxie\u003c/a> and opens May 1 in the Bay Area. This comparatively straightforward saga of crime and injustice documents the 2018 trial of the killers of unarmed activist Javier Chocobar in Argentina’s Tucumán Province. By way of rebutting their attorneys’ claim that the defendants had the right to access the disputed land and the Indigenous Chuschagasta community had no legal claim, Martel assembles acres of photographic, anecdotal and moral evidence to the contrary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her fiction features, Martel typically provides just enough context and bones of a story to give the viewer some footing. Her insistence that we interpret the perceptions and responses of the characters, along with her propensity to compress and elongate time, results in ambiguous, open-ended films whose pleasure correlates with the viewer’s willingness to be challenged. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cinephiles said similar things about the then-radical films of Michelangelo Antonioni and Alain Resnais. They also spent hours, if you can imagine, discussing the movies’ meanings and themes. Martel’s films invite equally intense conversations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2015px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009.jpg\" alt=\"older woman caresses younger woman's face as they sit on bed\" width=\"2015\" height=\"835\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988248\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009.jpg 2015w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-2000x829.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-768x318.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-1536x637.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2015px) 100vw, 2015px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">María Onetto and Inés Efron in a scene from Lucrecia Martel’s ‘The Headless Woman,’ 2008. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Whenever you manage, through cinema, to cast doubt on the assumed nature of things, you might be approaching something really interesting,” Martel said in a 2019 interview with the Museum of Modern Art’s online journal \u003ca href=\"https://post.moma.org/to-cast-doubt-on-the-assumed-nature-of-things-an-interview-with-lucrecia-martel/\">post: notes on art in a global context\u003c/a>. “And when you have done that once, there’s no way back. Because once you become aware of what makes no sense, never again can reality manage to completely hide its quality of disguise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>La ciénaga\u003c/em> (\u003cem>The Swamp\u003c/em>) is a fraught, impressionistic portrait of two decaying middle-class families. \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/holy-girl\">The Holy Girl\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2004) explores the twisted entanglement between a doctor attending a conference, a confused-by-religion teenager and her divorced mother. \u003cem>The Headless Woman\u003c/em> (2008) follows a well-off woman in the aftermath of a hit-and-run accident. \u003cem>Zama\u003c/em> (adapted from Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 novel) is likewise a portrait of privilege, stasis and desperation, although it more explicitly acknowledges colonial and (by extension) contemporary prejudice and exploitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Martel resists convention, plot summaries only convey the surface of her movies. Nor can synopses convey the importance of the outdoors — the natural world, certainly, but the land as identification, inheritance, history — as an embedded theme. The recurring presence of Indigenous people in various roles (employees, servants, children on the side of a highway), whether acknowledged by the characters or not, is a reminder to audiences of Argentina’s past and present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003.jpg\" alt=\"two girls swim on their backs in blue pool\" width=\"1440\" height=\"960\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988249\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from Lucrecia Martel’s ‘The Holy Girl,’ 2004. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Martel’s films are populated with adults so enmeshed in lives of pointless desperation that they lose touch with their children. If they can deny reality to the degree that their kids aren’t a priority, they are surely indifferent to a larger historical and geographic perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is an immediacy and energy to Martel’s work that hooks us and commands our attention, and feels completely of the moment. And although her films are rooted in specific Argentine experience and history, their invocations of the intersection of power and gender, and power and class, feel especially relevant now to (North) American audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have heard it described as cognitive dissonance. The comfort and complacency that has long existed in a certain strata of American society can’t continue, not in the same way and with the same obliviousness, in a tidal wave of increasing inequality, reduced rights, ICE detention centers, ongoing war, bottomless lies and a collapse of the moral code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we can recognize ourselves in Lucrecia Martel’s characters — selfish, ridiculous, dumbstruck, unmoored, committed to a failed system — we might begin to live in the urgency of \u003cem>now\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/lucrecia-martel-un-destino-comun\">Lucrecia Martel: Un destino común\u003c/a>’ plays April 4–19, 2026 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2155 Center St., Berkeley).\u003c/i> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/headless-woman\">The Headless Woman\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2008), Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel’s disturbing third feature, opens on three boys and a dog running and playing in the sun alongside a semi-rural two-lane highway. From the very first frame — there are 24 in a second, remember — the filmmaker thrusts us into the heightened immediacy of \u003cem>now\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing of particular importance seems to be taking place, or maybe we’re not attuned to it. The soundtrack pops with shouts and barks and, on a subliminal wavelength, also unnerves us. Our antennae detect a danger in the vicinity, or on the horizon, that makes us shift uncomfortably in our seat. We are already immersed and, to Martel’s way of thinking, complicit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most acclaimed and unsettling filmmakers working today, Martel is the focus of a Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive career retrospective timed to her current residency at UC Berkeley. \u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/lucrecia-martel-un-destino-comun\">Lucrecia Martel: Un destino común\u003c/a> opens Saturday, April 4 with her stunning debut \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/cienaga\">La ciénaga\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2001) and concludes Sunday, April 19 with her most recent feature \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/zama\">Zama\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2017), the odd and fascinating tale of a frustrated Spanish functionary losing his bearings in colonial Paraguay. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988252\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000.jpg\" alt=\"small crowd looks down hillside at white tent\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988252\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Nuestra-Tierra_001_2000-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Lucrecia Martel’s ‘Our Land/Nuestra Tierra,’ 2025. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The series also includes a sold-out screening of Martel’s 2025 documentary \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/our-land-nuestra-tierra\">Our Land/Nuestra Tierra\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, which plays April 16 at the \u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/our-land-nuestra-tierra/\">Roxie\u003c/a> and opens May 1 in the Bay Area. This comparatively straightforward saga of crime and injustice documents the 2018 trial of the killers of unarmed activist Javier Chocobar in Argentina’s Tucumán Province. By way of rebutting their attorneys’ claim that the defendants had the right to access the disputed land and the Indigenous Chuschagasta community had no legal claim, Martel assembles acres of photographic, anecdotal and moral evidence to the contrary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her fiction features, Martel typically provides just enough context and bones of a story to give the viewer some footing. Her insistence that we interpret the perceptions and responses of the characters, along with her propensity to compress and elongate time, results in ambiguous, open-ended films whose pleasure correlates with the viewer’s willingness to be challenged. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cinephiles said similar things about the then-radical films of Michelangelo Antonioni and Alain Resnais. They also spent hours, if you can imagine, discussing the movies’ meanings and themes. Martel’s films invite equally intense conversations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2015px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009.jpg\" alt=\"older woman caresses younger woman's face as they sit on bed\" width=\"2015\" height=\"835\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988248\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009.jpg 2015w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-2000x829.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-768x318.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Headless-Woman_009-1536x637.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2015px) 100vw, 2015px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">María Onetto and Inés Efron in a scene from Lucrecia Martel’s ‘The Headless Woman,’ 2008. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Whenever you manage, through cinema, to cast doubt on the assumed nature of things, you might be approaching something really interesting,” Martel said in a 2019 interview with the Museum of Modern Art’s online journal \u003ca href=\"https://post.moma.org/to-cast-doubt-on-the-assumed-nature-of-things-an-interview-with-lucrecia-martel/\">post: notes on art in a global context\u003c/a>. “And when you have done that once, there’s no way back. Because once you become aware of what makes no sense, never again can reality manage to completely hide its quality of disguise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>La ciénaga\u003c/em> (\u003cem>The Swamp\u003c/em>) is a fraught, impressionistic portrait of two decaying middle-class families. \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/event/holy-girl\">The Holy Girl\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (2004) explores the twisted entanglement between a doctor attending a conference, a confused-by-religion teenager and her divorced mother. \u003cem>The Headless Woman\u003c/em> (2008) follows a well-off woman in the aftermath of a hit-and-run accident. \u003cem>Zama\u003c/em> (adapted from Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 novel) is likewise a portrait of privilege, stasis and desperation, although it more explicitly acknowledges colonial and (by extension) contemporary prejudice and exploitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Martel resists convention, plot summaries only convey the surface of her movies. Nor can synopses convey the importance of the outdoors — the natural world, certainly, but the land as identification, inheritance, history — as an embedded theme. The recurring presence of Indigenous people in various roles (employees, servants, children on the side of a highway), whether acknowledged by the characters or not, is a reminder to audiences of Argentina’s past and present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13988249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1440px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003.jpg\" alt=\"two girls swim on their backs in blue pool\" width=\"1440\" height=\"960\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13988249\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003.jpg 1440w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Martel_Holy-Girl_003-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from Lucrecia Martel’s ‘The Holy Girl,’ 2004. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of BAMPFA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Martel’s films are populated with adults so enmeshed in lives of pointless desperation that they lose touch with their children. If they can deny reality to the degree that their kids aren’t a priority, they are surely indifferent to a larger historical and geographic perspective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is an immediacy and energy to Martel’s work that hooks us and commands our attention, and feels completely of the moment. And although her films are rooted in specific Argentine experience and history, their invocations of the intersection of power and gender, and power and class, feel especially relevant now to (North) American audiences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have heard it described as cognitive dissonance. The comfort and complacency that has long existed in a certain strata of American society can’t continue, not in the same way and with the same obliviousness, in a tidal wave of increasing inequality, reduced rights, ICE detention centers, ongoing war, bottomless lies and a collapse of the moral code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we can recognize ourselves in Lucrecia Martel’s characters — selfish, ridiculous, dumbstruck, unmoored, committed to a failed system — we might begin to live in the urgency of \u003cem>now\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://bampfa.org/program/lucrecia-martel-un-destino-comun\">Lucrecia Martel: Un destino común\u003c/a>’ plays April 4–19, 2026 at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2155 Center St., Berkeley).\u003c/i> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "palestine-36-movie-review-arab-british-empire",
"title": "Heartfelt Epic ‘Palestine ’36’ Revisits Arab Blows Against the British Empire",
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"headTitle": "Heartfelt Epic ‘Palestine ’36’ Revisits Arab Blows Against the British Empire | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s fourth and most ambitious feature, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/palestine-36\">Palestine ’36\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (opening Friday, March 27 at several Bay Area theaters), is the kind of movie that critics like to say nobody makes anymore: an expensive, expansive period piece that movingly depicts the impossible sacrifices of everyday people against a backdrop of geopolitical events whose consequences reverberate to this very minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palestine’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar (it was shortlisted but not nominated), \u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> has both the virtues and flaws of the typical historical epic in that it necessarily compresses multiple perspectives into two hours. While the stakes are made palpable and our emotional connections to the characters are solid, key dramatic events come and go in a flash and some of the dialogue is overly succinct and on the nose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your land is where your people are buried,” a grandmother instructs her granddaughter. “You have something more powerful than the entire British Empire. You come from a line of brave people who love their land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987961\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2.jpg\" alt=\"two children run through flowering field\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987961\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Palestine ’36,’ featuring Wardi Eilabouni as Afra (left). \u003ccite>(Watermelon Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A speech underscoring the values of home, identity and ownership comes with the territory, pardon the pun. Jacir’s great contribution is immersing us in pre-World War II Palestine through careful attention to clothes and settings, augmented with restored and colorized archival footage. It is a pleasure to inhabit a physical, analog world where you can practically taste the dust and the grape leaves, and a 19th-century single-shot pistol has the weight of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shot on location in Palestine and Jordan, \u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> is at heart a multi-generational mosaic of profiles in radicalization. Surely you aren’t surprised to hear that this is a politically charged film, although (for better or worse) it never stops in its tracks for a utopian debate of principles and tactics à la English filmmaker Ken Loach (\u003cem>Land and Freedom\u003c/em>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story begins in 1936 when a young villager, Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya), comes to Jerusalem to be the assistant to a well-off publisher whose independent wife, Khouloud (Yasmine Al Massri), is an accomplished journalist. The traditional agrarian life of the nearby villages is conveyed through the aforementioned grandmother (a fierce Hiam Abbas), her widowed daughter Rabab (Yafa Bakri) and granddaughter Afra (Wardi Eilabouni).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987962\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3.jpg\" alt=\"three military men drive in open-topped car\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987962\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Palestine ’36,’ featuring Robert Aramayo as Captain Wingate (far right). \u003ccite>(Watermelon Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Great Britain has been in charge of Palestine since the end of World War I, and the Brits are represented here by doddering High Commissioner Wauchope (Jeremy Irons), idealistic young diplomat Thomas (Billy Howle) and the singularly brutal Captain Wingate (Robert Aramayo).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although there have been Jews in Palestine for centuries — with tensions and violence between Jews and Palestinians simmering for a while and the Jewish population increasing as Europeans flee anti-Semitism — it’s important to note that \u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> is a saga of the conflict between the indigenous Arabs and the occupying British. The Jewish settlers are almost entirely off-screen, although their presence and influence is referenced throughout the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arabs see the British as siding with the Zionists through a mix of condescension, prejudice and the calculations of out-of-touch London politicians. Yet not all the Arabs have thrown in with the armed rebels living in the mountains; some of the old-line, land-owning establishment types are hedging their bets by staying aligned with the British.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987963\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4.jpg\" alt=\"suited women march with banners\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987963\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Palestine ’36,’ featuring Yasmine Al Massri as Khouloud (second from right). \u003ccite>(Watermelon Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the story centers on colonialists and insurgents of another time, it’s impossible to miss the contemporary echoes in some of Jacir’s compositions. Women throwing stones at fleeing British soldiers call to mind the images of children throwing stones at Israeli soldiers during the first intifada. The British army blowing up stone Palestinian houses inevitably calls down through the years to the Israeli army destroying Palestinian houses on various dubious premises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roger Ebert defined the movies as a great empathy machine, in that we see and identify with people whose lives are not ours. As we sit here today, the hideous crimes perpetuated against Palestinians and Israelis by each other in the last few years have had the additional effect of hardening everyone’s attitudes and positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> may not be a film that wins or changes hearts and minds. It does offer an opening, for those who want to take it, to step into the realm of compassion, if only for two hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Palestine ’36’ opens Friday, March 27 at \u003ca href=\"https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/palestine-36\">select Bay Area theaters\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s fourth and most ambitious feature, \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/palestine-36\">Palestine ’36\u003c/a>\u003c/em> (opening Friday, March 27 at several Bay Area theaters), is the kind of movie that critics like to say nobody makes anymore: an expensive, expansive period piece that movingly depicts the impossible sacrifices of everyday people against a backdrop of geopolitical events whose consequences reverberate to this very minute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palestine’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar (it was shortlisted but not nominated), \u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> has both the virtues and flaws of the typical historical epic in that it necessarily compresses multiple perspectives into two hours. While the stakes are made palpable and our emotional connections to the characters are solid, key dramatic events come and go in a flash and some of the dialogue is overly succinct and on the nose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Your land is where your people are buried,” a grandmother instructs her granddaughter. “You have something more powerful than the entire British Empire. You come from a line of brave people who love their land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987961\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2.jpg\" alt=\"two children run through flowering field\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987961\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_2-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Palestine ’36,’ featuring Wardi Eilabouni as Afra (left). \u003ccite>(Watermelon Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A speech underscoring the values of home, identity and ownership comes with the territory, pardon the pun. Jacir’s great contribution is immersing us in pre-World War II Palestine through careful attention to clothes and settings, augmented with restored and colorized archival footage. It is a pleasure to inhabit a physical, analog world where you can practically taste the dust and the grape leaves, and a 19th-century single-shot pistol has the weight of the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shot on location in Palestine and Jordan, \u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> is at heart a multi-generational mosaic of profiles in radicalization. Surely you aren’t surprised to hear that this is a politically charged film, although (for better or worse) it never stops in its tracks for a utopian debate of principles and tactics à la English filmmaker Ken Loach (\u003cem>Land and Freedom\u003c/em>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story begins in 1936 when a young villager, Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya), comes to Jerusalem to be the assistant to a well-off publisher whose independent wife, Khouloud (Yasmine Al Massri), is an accomplished journalist. The traditional agrarian life of the nearby villages is conveyed through the aforementioned grandmother (a fierce Hiam Abbas), her widowed daughter Rabab (Yafa Bakri) and granddaughter Afra (Wardi Eilabouni).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987962\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3.jpg\" alt=\"three military men drive in open-topped car\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987962\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine36_3-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Palestine ’36,’ featuring Robert Aramayo as Captain Wingate (far right). \u003ccite>(Watermelon Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Great Britain has been in charge of Palestine since the end of World War I, and the Brits are represented here by doddering High Commissioner Wauchope (Jeremy Irons), idealistic young diplomat Thomas (Billy Howle) and the singularly brutal Captain Wingate (Robert Aramayo).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although there have been Jews in Palestine for centuries — with tensions and violence between Jews and Palestinians simmering for a while and the Jewish population increasing as Europeans flee anti-Semitism — it’s important to note that \u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> is a saga of the conflict between the indigenous Arabs and the occupying British. The Jewish settlers are almost entirely off-screen, although their presence and influence is referenced throughout the film.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Arabs see the British as siding with the Zionists through a mix of condescension, prejudice and the calculations of out-of-touch London politicians. Yet not all the Arabs have thrown in with the armed rebels living in the mountains; some of the old-line, land-owning establishment types are hedging their bets by staying aligned with the British.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987963\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4.jpg\" alt=\"suited women march with banners\" width=\"2000\" height=\"838\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987963\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4-160x67.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4-768x322.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/Palestine-36_4-1536x644.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from ‘Palestine ’36,’ featuring Yasmine Al Massri as Khouloud (second from right). \u003ccite>(Watermelon Pictures)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While the story centers on colonialists and insurgents of another time, it’s impossible to miss the contemporary echoes in some of Jacir’s compositions. Women throwing stones at fleeing British soldiers call to mind the images of children throwing stones at Israeli soldiers during the first intifada. The British army blowing up stone Palestinian houses inevitably calls down through the years to the Israeli army destroying Palestinian houses on various dubious premises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roger Ebert defined the movies as a great empathy machine, in that we see and identify with people whose lives are not ours. As we sit here today, the hideous crimes perpetuated against Palestinians and Israelis by each other in the last few years have had the additional effect of hardening everyone’s attitudes and positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Palestine ’36\u003c/em> may not be a film that wins or changes hearts and minds. It does offer an opening, for those who want to take it, to step into the realm of compassion, if only for two hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘Palestine ’36’ opens Friday, March 27 at \u003ca href=\"https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/palestine-36\">select Bay Area theaters\u003c/a>.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>When the FIFA Men’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913251/the-world-cup-heads-to-california\">World Cup\u003c/a> comes to the Bay Area in June and July, much of the conversation will revolve around the economic benefits of hosting these mega sporting events. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for soccer fans like Daniel Díaz, a purely monetary focus misses the mark. On Sunday, March 29, Díaz, via the documentary platform CiNEOLA, will present a program at the Roxie called “\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/futbol-on-film/\">Fútbol on film\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted to put together a program that spoke to football in a way that really focuses on the good, the people, the humanity around the sport,” he tells KQED. The goal, he says, is to look at the sport from an “anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist lens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000.jpg\" alt=\"tv screen showing soccer game in darkened space\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Henrique Cartaxo’s short film ‘Roberto Baggio,’ 2023. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the artist and CiNEOLA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 90-minute program starts at noon with a series of three short documentaries focused on Latin American football: RJ Sanchez’s \u003ci>Barra brava\u003c/i>, a 16mm film about Colombia’s devoted soccer fans; \u003ci>Roberto Baggio\u003c/i>, about filmmaker Henrique Cartaxo’s memories of Brazil’s 1994 World Cup victory; and Díaz’s own short \u003ci>Junior tu papá\u003c/i>, which revisits memories of a 1993 championship game played in Barranquilla, Colombia 17 days after Pablo Escobar’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the main event of the day for many in attendance will be a teaser of Díaz’s current project, a feature-length documentary about \u003ca href=\"https://sfcityfc.com/\">San Francisco City Football Club\u003c/a>, the oldest community-owned soccer club in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team, which has been around since 2001 and competes in the semi-professional USL League Two, has long played its home games at Kezar Stadium. Over two decades, SF City FC has gathered an ardent fan base of local supporters, people who fill the stands with black and gold gear, drums and flags, chanting “Oh when the fog / comes rolling in.” (Sponsored by Muni, the team has some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952578/san-francisco-soccer-team-city-fc-muni-hollis-callas-collaboration\">best jerseys in the game\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987804\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000.jpg\" alt=\"three men in soccer jerseys against green screen\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1326\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987804\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">L to R: Filmmaker Daniel Díaz with SF City FC Creative Director Ian Blackley and Director of Operations Tyler Hinman at SF COMMONS. \u003ccite>(Daniel Díaz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But in May 2025, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DJb3KiHxwKh/\">Mayor Daniel Lurie announced\u003c/a> a new minor league soccer team founded by financial executives Geoff Oltmans and Marc Rohrer — the confusingly named Golden City FC — would be coming to San Francisco. Shortly after, the Board of Supervisors voted to give the nonexistent team a \u003ca href=\"https://sfrecpark.org/m/newsflash/home/detail/2285\">15-year-contract at Kezar\u003c/a> (with the option of three five-year extensions) in exchange for $10 million worth of renovations to the stadium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_12076503' hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/IMG_1406-2000x1500.jpg']SF City FC was blindsided. The deal meant they would be able to play just one game a season on what had been their home field. Nearly a year later, Golden City FC has yet to materialize, and the team’s website is \u003ca href=\"https://goldencityfootballclub.org/\">now broken\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this provides plenty of dramatic fodder for Díaz’s \u003ci>Roll Fog\u003c/i>, which he will continue to film through the team’s 2026 season, which opens with \u003ca href=\"https://sfcityfc.com/schedule/san-juan-home\">a home game\u003c/a> at San Francisco State University’s Cox Stadium on May 3. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is going to be the first time we’re showing anything publicly for the project,” Díaz says of the 12-minute teaser screening at the Roxie. “We’re using it as an opportunity to introduce this project to the community that it is for and it’s about and that is ultimately participating in the production of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Q&A after will include a conversation between Díaz and Rei Dorwart of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13972889/marco-jacques-joga-jax-sf-city-football-club-futbol-by-the-bay\">Fútbol by the Bay\u003c/a> (which runs youth soccer clinics, among other activities), and members of SF City FC supporter groups the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/northsiderssfcityfc/\">Northsiders\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kezarunionsf/\">Kezar Union\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/faultlineoffenders/\">Fault Line Offenders\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a project that we want to really be through the fans’ point of view,” Díaz says. In that spirit, attendees are encouraged to wear their teams’ jerseys, and to bring scarves and flags to the screening. At the Roxie, Díaz says he hopes to create a “match day atmosphere” emblematic of how soccer brings disparate groups together in support of the sport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about replicating everything that’s so great about the city that we’re in,” he says, “and how, at least in my mind, SF City FC does that as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/futbol-on-film/\">Fútbol on film\u003c/a>’ screens at the Roxie Theater (3125 16th St., San Francisco) on Sunday, March 29 at 12 p.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When the FIFA Men’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913251/the-world-cup-heads-to-california\">World Cup\u003c/a> comes to the Bay Area in June and July, much of the conversation will revolve around the economic benefits of hosting these mega sporting events. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for soccer fans like Daniel Díaz, a purely monetary focus misses the mark. On Sunday, March 29, Díaz, via the documentary platform CiNEOLA, will present a program at the Roxie called “\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/futbol-on-film/\">Fútbol on film\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We wanted to put together a program that spoke to football in a way that really focuses on the good, the people, the humanity around the sport,” he tells KQED. The goal, he says, is to look at the sport from an “anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist lens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987803\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000.jpg\" alt=\"tv screen showing soccer game in darkened space\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987803\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/BaggioStill_jpg4_2000-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A still from Henrique Cartaxo’s short film ‘Roberto Baggio,’ 2023. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the artist and CiNEOLA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The 90-minute program starts at noon with a series of three short documentaries focused on Latin American football: RJ Sanchez’s \u003ci>Barra brava\u003c/i>, a 16mm film about Colombia’s devoted soccer fans; \u003ci>Roberto Baggio\u003c/i>, about filmmaker Henrique Cartaxo’s memories of Brazil’s 1994 World Cup victory; and Díaz’s own short \u003ci>Junior tu papá\u003c/i>, which revisits memories of a 1993 championship game played in Barranquilla, Colombia 17 days after Pablo Escobar’s death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the main event of the day for many in attendance will be a teaser of Díaz’s current project, a feature-length documentary about \u003ca href=\"https://sfcityfc.com/\">San Francisco City Football Club\u003c/a>, the oldest community-owned soccer club in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team, which has been around since 2001 and competes in the semi-professional USL League Two, has long played its home games at Kezar Stadium. Over two decades, SF City FC has gathered an ardent fan base of local supporters, people who fill the stands with black and gold gear, drums and flags, chanting “Oh when the fog / comes rolling in.” (Sponsored by Muni, the team has some of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13952578/san-francisco-soccer-team-city-fc-muni-hollis-callas-collaboration\">best jerseys in the game\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13987804\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000.jpg\" alt=\"three men in soccer jerseys against green screen\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1326\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13987804\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000-768x509.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/SFCityFC_MUNDIAL-06_2000-1536x1018.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">L to R: Filmmaker Daniel Díaz with SF City FC Creative Director Ian Blackley and Director of Operations Tyler Hinman at SF COMMONS. \u003ccite>(Daniel Díaz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But in May 2025, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DJb3KiHxwKh/\">Mayor Daniel Lurie announced\u003c/a> a new minor league soccer team founded by financial executives Geoff Oltmans and Marc Rohrer — the confusingly named Golden City FC — would be coming to San Francisco. Shortly after, the Board of Supervisors voted to give the nonexistent team a \u003ca href=\"https://sfrecpark.org/m/newsflash/home/detail/2285\">15-year-contract at Kezar\u003c/a> (with the option of three five-year extensions) in exchange for $10 million worth of renovations to the stadium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>SF City FC was blindsided. The deal meant they would be able to play just one game a season on what had been their home field. Nearly a year later, Golden City FC has yet to materialize, and the team’s website is \u003ca href=\"https://goldencityfootballclub.org/\">now broken\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this provides plenty of dramatic fodder for Díaz’s \u003ci>Roll Fog\u003c/i>, which he will continue to film through the team’s 2026 season, which opens with \u003ca href=\"https://sfcityfc.com/schedule/san-juan-home\">a home game\u003c/a> at San Francisco State University’s Cox Stadium on May 3. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is going to be the first time we’re showing anything publicly for the project,” Díaz says of the 12-minute teaser screening at the Roxie. “We’re using it as an opportunity to introduce this project to the community that it is for and it’s about and that is ultimately participating in the production of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Q&A after will include a conversation between Díaz and Rei Dorwart of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13972889/marco-jacques-joga-jax-sf-city-football-club-futbol-by-the-bay\">Fútbol by the Bay\u003c/a> (which runs youth soccer clinics, among other activities), and members of SF City FC supporter groups the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/northsiderssfcityfc/\">Northsiders\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/kezarunionsf/\">Kezar Union\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/faultlineoffenders/\">Fault Line Offenders\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a project that we want to really be through the fans’ point of view,” Díaz says. In that spirit, attendees are encouraged to wear their teams’ jerseys, and to bring scarves and flags to the screening. At the Roxie, Díaz says he hopes to create a “match day atmosphere” emblematic of how soccer brings disparate groups together in support of the sport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s about replicating everything that’s so great about the city that we’re in,” he says, “and how, at least in my mind, SF City FC does that as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>‘\u003ca href=\"https://roxie.com/film/futbol-on-film/\">Fútbol on film\u003c/a>’ screens at the Roxie Theater (3125 16th St., San Francisco) on Sunday, March 29 at 12 p.m.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"science-friday": {
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