'Fruitvale Station' 
The Last Black Man in San Francisco, 2019
width="853" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"> Awarded the Sundance Directing Award and Sundance Special Jury Award for Creative Collaboration in 2019, this film narrates the story of Jimmy (Jimmy Fails), a young black man living in San Francisco, who is determined to reclaim the house his grandfather built, an elegant Victorian building set in the haute Fillmore neighbourhood.
Now, the house has new tenants, but Jimmy, along with his friend Mont (Jonathan Majors), a talented playwright and artist, regularly breaks into the property to do repairs on it, much to the frustration of its elderly white occupants. When an inheritance scandal goes awry and the house is left standing empty, Jimmy and Mont take their chance and move in. Their happiness is short-lived though, as the house is placed on the market, urging Jimmy to come up with the money to reclaim it.
Beyond its terraced houses and leafy streets, San Francisco’s trendy Fillmore neighbourhood is symbolic of a city that struggles with gangsterism, has a history of forced evictions and is feeling the effects of gentrification. In this, and although the cultures may differ, The Last Blackman in San Francisco translates easily to a South African setting.
Despite its heavy subject matter, the film feels light and sublime. The cinematography is polished, with a vivid colour scheme, seen especially through the costumes: here gold accessories, there red, blue and yellow jackets.
Through subtle repetitions, power dynamics are also clearly set: Fillmore house’s white tenants talk down to Jimmy, standing at the top of their staircase; later, when Jimmy is living in the house, he, in turn, talks down to tourists who come sightseeing at his home.
This level of affected detail though, causes the film to drift into dramatic political posturing. Jimmy Fail’s acting is powerful but the script sometimes reduces him to a disaffected victim of an unfair system and in a film about personal history his is sorely lacking. What makes his bond with Mont so close, why he doesn’t see his mother, why they originally lost their home, all go wanting.
But the film is beautifully shot, peculiar, and the story that criticises the rich and the privileged for taking control of areas rooted in cultural experience, and that looks deeper into the issue of gentrification, is extremely relevant.
Fruitvale Station, 2013