let me tell you what home looks like

Screenings & Films

let me tell you what home looks like

SF Urban Film Fest |

February 8, 2020, 7 PM

As cities gentrify, what tactics are black artists and communities using to fight back against displacement and the narrative that their neighborhoods are broken until “saved” by white gentrification? How are artists and activists reaffirming, reclaiming, and rewriting the narrative of the city and making spaces that serve their own needs?

These films and the panel discussion work to shift audience perspectives, make space for voices often unheard, and pay tribute to both those who used to live in these spaces and the resilience of those who carry on.

Panelists:
Melinda James, Director, Oklahoma is Black
Divali Magnus, Housing director, Young Community Developers, Inc.
Marie Alarcón, Multi-media artist

Moderator:
Teresa Moore, Professor of Journalism and Media Studies, Director of Journalism Program, USF

Screening Room

Films:

Oklahoma is Black (USA, 2019, 3 mins) by Melinda James & Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

Oklahoma is Black is a portrait of black life on the northeast side of Oklahoma City. It is a meditation on the resilience of a community, of its complexities and its nuances, and of its concern for what has passed and what is to come.

A Love Song For Latasha (USA, 2019, 19 mins) by Sophia Nahli Allison

A Love Song For Latasha is an experimental documentary of a dreamlike archive in conversation with the past and the present. It reimagines a more nuanced narrative of Latasha Harlins by excavating intimate and poetic memories shared by her cousin and best friend.

Witness (USA, 2017, 36 mins) by Marie Alarcón

In 2017, Southwest Roots Artist Catalyst resident artists Marie Alarcón, Althea Baird, Ash Richards, Darlene Devore, and Jennifer Turnbull developed a multidisciplinary project at Bartram’s Garden with the help of community liaison Sophia Poe. The culminating event was a multichannel video installation showcasing neighbors and friends of Bartram’s Garden as they perform everyday acts of art and movement, highlighting the creative power that has long existed in communities. It focuses on the intimate and personal relationships between a place and the communities that interact within it, outside of the involvement of institutions.

Liberty (USA, 2018, 16 mins) by Faren Humes

Alex and Milagros deal with great life upheaval as they prepare to dance at their community’s redevelopment groundbreaking ceremony.

Melinda James

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

Sophia Nahli Allison

Faren Humes

Marie Alarcón

Alexandra Jackson (Alex) and Milagros Gilbert (Loggy) Dance in Liberty Square, from Liberty (2018) by Faren Humes. Photograph by Alex Harris.

Still from Oklahoma is Black (2019) by Melinda James & Tatyana Fazlalizadeh.

Still from Witness (2017) by Marie Alarcón.

Still from A Love Song For Latasha (2019) by Sophia Nahli Allison.

About SF Urban Film Fest

SF Urban Film Fest gathers a diverse, engaged audience and uses the power of storytelling to spark discussion and civic engagement around urban issues, asking what it means to live together in the city and make urban planning more equitable and inclusive.

The SF Urban Film Fest theme for 2020 explores Place and the Populist Revolt, investigating how cities are ground zero for the struggle to find or hold on to a place, for both incumbents and newly arrived. But even as there are attempts to build walls and to exclude others, the human spirit lives in expressions of belonging and resistance to exclusion. Each film screening is followed by a discussion around developing community-centered solutions to ground audiences in the spirit of place.

More about SF Urban Film Fest here →