Festival organizer David Roach says the program is designed to make room for independent filmmakers, connect audiences with artists and invite people to see Oakland beyond the narratives that too often define it.
by Tabari Morris
The Oakland International Film Festival will launch its season on Sept. 9 at the Grand Lake Theater, presenting a program of more than 50 films that its organizers claim have emerged from the community testimony of those dealing with issues of environmental destruction, violence, exile, censorship and imprisonment.
The festival is set to run through Oakland venues, such as Informal Spaces and the Oakland campus of Northeastern University, formerly Mills College, among others. Screenings will be combined with workshops, panel discussions and Q&A sessions with filmmakers. Festival Founder and Director David Roach told the SF Bay View that about 90% of the filmmakers would attend the event, providing audiences with a special chance to talk to the creators of the films themselves.
“Independent filmmakers are taking a stab at these kinds of stories that often times mainstream media do not touch. That’s why we’re really trying to create space for them — conversations.”
Among the films Roach highlighted is “The Right to Fight to Breathe,” a short documentary connected to the long environmental justice fight in West Oakland. He described how truck traffic serving the Port of Oakland moves through nearby neighborhoods, where residents have observed soot on windows and endured the health consequences of pollution, including asthma.
The film’s local framing points toward a broader question that runs through the festival: Who bears the cost when commerce, development and resource extraction move forward without communities having an equal say? Roach connected that question to oil spills, data centers and the increasing demands placed on water and energy systems.
“Commerce is made, but the people who don’t get the commerce suffer the most.”
The program also turns to immigration, free expression and young people navigating pressures that should not be ordinary. Roach cited “Unidos 26” about young soccer players in the Los Angeles area, and “Free Speech Costs Plenty,” a film by comedian and radio personality Donald Lacy that examines censorship and the exposure artists can face when their work draws hostile reactions.
Opening night will feature short films including “This Is Private” and “Waiting for Afra’s Ivy.” Roach declined to spoil their central turns, but said the works reflect how short films can establish a filmmaker’s storytelling vision and become a bridge toward a feature-length project.
The festival’s cultural reach includes “Brewing Stew,” about the late guitarist Calvin Keys; “Breaking the Cycle,” which follows an intergenerational break-dancing program in Colombia; and “A Salty Frontalia,” a documentary that Roach described as tracing the global imprint of Black radical culture. “Soul Searching” explores Chicano collectors and DJs preserving slow soul records, with a related music-centered event planned at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle.
“We’re always trying to figure out how can we highlight culture. We see culture as history — oftentimes history is a big part of our culture — and music.”
Indigenous history is another focus. In partnership with Humboldt County education partners, the festival plans to screen “People of the West, Episode Eight” and “Native California,” films that Roach said offer accounts often omitted from conventional school curriculum — including the Red Power movement, the occupation of Alcatraz, tribal stewardship and relationships with the land.
The program will also make room for stories about women’s survival and the criminal legal system. At Northeastern University, the festival’s “Preventing Violence, Healing Our City” screening will pair “Set Her Free,” about women who faced severe sentences after defending themselves from domestic violence, with “Liberty and Limits: Guns in California.” Roach said the latter examines gun law history as well as violence prevention workers whose program reduced violence before funding was cut.
Films about housing and home will follow: “What We Dreamed of Then,” about a man in Seattle trying to survive homelessness while working, and “Home,” a short film about family bonds, a grandmother and the meaning of a shared home. For a city facing entrenched displacement, the pairing places personal struggle alongside the question of what stability requires.
“We’re hoping that we can just learn how to support each other. We know we need each other.”
Oakland itself is not merely a backdrop. “Guardians of Oakland Chinatown” follows community members who organized to protect Chinatown during the hardships of the COVID era. “Oakland Strong” traces a youth weightlifting initiative that sought recognition and support by staging a demonstration outside City Hall. “The Blackumentary” follows people connected to Oakland’s Black Cultural Zone and their efforts to sustain Black community amid development pressures.
Roach said the festival is also deliberately sending audiences into the city’s restaurants and neighborhood spaces, including Talibah’s, Sabri and other venues still being finalized. The aim is to counter a narrow, fear-driven picture of Oakland with lived experience: food, art, history and people gathering in places that deserve investment.
“Instead of preaching about it, we’re hoping that we can introduce folks to a side of Oakland that keeps them returning back to Oakland.”
The closing program is expected to include “Earthseed: A People’s Journey of Radical Hospitality,” about people connecting with communities practicing sustainable ways of living, and “Native Son,” centered on Oakland chef Nelson German and the challenges behind his work at the city’s restaurants. Other films Roach mentioned include “Prison in Time,” an animated account of barriers to education while incarcerated; “After 24 Years,” about reentry after a long prison sentence; and “More Than Santa Baby,” about songwriter Philip Springer and a lifetime in music publishing.
“A screening can introduce a story; a discussion can help a community carry it forward.”
Tickets, schedules and film information are available through the festival’s websites, oiff.org and oaklandfilmfestival.org.
Tabari Morris is Managing Editor at the San Francisco Bay View as well as an investigative journalist. He can be reached at Tabari@sfbayview.com.