Filmmaker Joe Talbot is a fifth-generation San Franciscan who grew up cherishing his city’s diversity and cultural vitality. But these days, he often deplores what he sees going on in his hometown: Absurd real estate prices, vast income inequality, and gentrification that is pushing out “some of the people who made San Francisco so great.”
“It seems that the city is quickly becoming less and less recognizable,” he says. “It’s beyond frustrating.”
That frustration is, in part, what fueled “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” a semi-autobiographical movie Talbot created with his longtime friend, actor Jimmie Fails, and featuring local talent, including Danny Glover.
Part love letter to a city that was and part cautionary tale, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” tells the poignant story of a struggling African-American (Fails) who clings to the long-shot dream of one day reclaiming his childhood home — an elegant Victorian in the Fillmore District. But his relentless drive to do so blinds him to the grim reality of his situation and why the house is out of his reach.
The film arrives a year after two Oakland-based movies — “Blindspotting” and “Sorry to Bother You” — garnered headlines and strong reviews addressing similar issues about the changes and cultural pressures brought to the Bay Area by the booming tech economy.
“The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” which hits theaters on June 7, won the special jury and directing awards at the Sundance Film Festival and has garnered mostly rapturous reviews. Critics describe it as “gorgeous and touchingly idealistic” and “wonderfully quirky, nuanced and profoundly resonant.”
“Last Black Man” premiered at the Castro Theatre last week before an enthusiastic, sold-out audience peppered with local celebrities. The morning after, Talbot, who directed the film, joined Fails and a few cast members at the Fairmont Hotel to reflect on their project. They were still basking in the love showered upon them.
“It was the greatest night of my life,” said Talbot, rocking a rumpled San Francisco Giants hat. “I wish it didn’t have to end.”
“That was all I could ever ask for — for the city to be proud of what we did,” Fails added.
In the movie, which also has a special screening last week at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater, Fails plays a fictionalized version of himself. Like his character, he spent his early youth in the Fillmore, an area rich with black history and teeming with immigrants. Fails lived with his father, an aunt and uncle and several cousins in a worn-down Victorian until his family was forced out when he was 6.
Fails bounced around the city with his father, living in housing projects, shelters and, for a brief time, their car as the rest of the family fled to the suburbs. While residing in a Mission District group home as a teen, Fails met Talbot, who is white. The two instantly bonded over a shared passion for music and film.
When Fails got around to telling Talbot of his time spent in that old Victorian, the latter saw a classic San Francisco story in the making. They began seriously developing their saga of displacement and estrangement five years ago. It arrives at a time when San Francisco’s African-American population has dwindled to 5.5 percent compared to 13.4 percent a half century ago.
Fails, who co-wrote “Last Black Man” with Talbot, said the film wasn’t born out of anger but “more of a jaded feeling — a sad feeling.”
“There are times when it feels like this city doesn’t love me as much as I love it,” he said.
The San Francisco that Talbot remembers is a city that welcomed everyone — from immigrants and outcasts to bohemians and artists. He lived in a neighborhood populated by “people of all backgrounds” and hung out with friends in places such as La Victoria, a Mexican bakery that shut down last year after 70 years in business.
“With every closure of places like that, and other shops that were part of our upbringing, a little piece of you dies,” he said. “It’s pretty heartbreaking.”
Fails fears San Francisco is losing its sense of community and hopes the film will touch something inside the new and affluent people making their way into the city.
“I hope it helps people think in a way that’s more positive and more loving and accepting,” he said. “You should come and try to be a part of something, as opposed to being distant and standoffish.”
Waxing nostalgic, Talbot recalls watching landmark movies at the Castro that “changed the way we thought about things.”
“I hope our movie has that kind of power,” he said.
Contact Chuck Barney at cbarney@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/chuckbarney and Facebook.com/bayareanewsgroup.chuckbarney.
