Released on Jan. 26, 2019, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” starring Riordan alumnus Jimmie Fails ’12, conveys an evocative portrayal of gentrification and its immense consequences the ethnic minorities of San Francisco.
In the film, Jimmie is going through a rough time trying to accept the fact that his old house does not belong to his family anymore. Living in the Bayview with his best friend Montgomery, Jimmie never loses hope that one day he will get his old house back.
Jimmie’s house was built by his grandfather who first arrived in San Francisco in 1946. According to the film’s narrative, his grandfather was the first Black man to arrive in San Francisco.
Today, ethnic minorities like African Americans and Latinos are no longer living in districts where those communities once flourished like Potrero Hill and Fillmore. This is all thanks to gentrification.
English teacher, Brian Kosewic ’16 said, “I think that the communities that have come to San Francisco have played important roles in shaping San Francisco, but at the same time have the most roadblocks and obstacles that have come in between their success.”
To elaborate on the examples of these roadblocks, Kosewic added, “Banks and the federal government purposefully chose not to invest in certain neighborhoods that they deemed undesirable…”
He added, “I think now as events like the ‘tech boom’ have started bringing an influx of money to San Francisco…those poorer and under-resourced neighborhoods are the first who are starting to lose a hold on their neighborhoods.”
San Francisco is known as one of the most diverse cities in the world because of the efforts of people coming together in hopes of a better life. It is movies like this that remind people just how lucky they are to live here and that they cannot take it for granted
“I think gentrification is one of the biggest problems here in SF. It is also a very sad situation that many go through. Many people lose not just their homes, but their memories. It must be terribly difficult seeing your home changed into a factory or something along those lines,” expressed Jackie Gámez ’26.
When the movie was released six years ago, Fails told The Guardian in an interview, “It’s about coming together, the real San Franciscans who are still there,” said Fails.
“Creating one voice to represent everyone. You can fight back with art, that worked for them in the ’60s. But only because they banded together and had that community feeling. That’s the way to do it.”
