‘Last Black Man’ opens in city that inspired it
The buzz around “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” has been building since it premiered to rave reviews at Sundance in March. There’s a comfort in that, of course, says director Joe Talbot.
“You have these delusions of grandeur that you temper at the start,” he says. “So often you get used to, in life, that your dreams don’t happen.”
And yet, there’s still some tempering happening. Both Talbot and Jimmie Fails, the film’s star, are hopeful that the movie will be as well received once it’s out in the world. But they’re nervous, too. They’re not taking anything for granted.
They’ll know soon enough. “Last Black Man” is having its San Francisco debut Wednesday, May 29, at the Castro Theatre. An Oakland debut happens an evening later at the Grand Lake Theatre. The movie’s public opening comes June 7.
This is the moment they’ve been waiting for. The film, after all, is very much a love letter to a changing city. Many of the film’s secondary characters are played by locals they brought into the project.
The film is loosely based on Fails’ life story; it follows a character, also named Jimmie, as he daydreams about taking back his family’s Victorian home in the Fillmore district. The home had been in the family for generations, but hard times hit, and they were evicted. One day, Jimmie finds the house empty, and he and his friend Montgomery (played by Jonathan Majors) move in, hoping to create a new life, a new story that’s not just about loss.
On June 7, a week after the film premieres in San Francisco, it will hit theaters nationwide. That’ll mark the end of a 10-year drive to get this project in front of audiences. Mostly it feels surreal — or simply “weird,” the two say.
Friends have been sending Fails photographs of the movie’s title on marquees, or of the poster that his face is drawn onto. “Being on the poster is weird,” he says.
“Knowing that it will be in theaters is weird,” Talbot says.