The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019). Photofest.
(Joe Talbot, US 2019, 121 min., DCP)
Co-writer Jimmie Fails stars as a version of himself in this debut film from director Joe Talbot. Jimmie, a third-generation San Franciscan, lives with his friend Mont (Jonathan Majors) and works as a nurse at a senior care facility. On Sundays, Jimmie and Mont bus or skateboard to the house Jimmie’s grandfather built—but that Jimmie’s family lost due to rising taxes. He fixes up the house when the current owners aren’t around, with the dream of someday returning to his family’s legacy. Mont, meanwhile, works at the fish counter of a local market, drawing and writing in his spare time. A story of gentrification and the idea of American legacy, this sensitive film deals with the fringes of society and the terrible cost of displacement.