Filmmaker takes viewers on televised tour of Oakland
There’s a heartwarming, Oakland-based moment in an upcoming episode of the new TV series “Elvis Goes There.” Director Ryan Coogler is conversing with retired boxing champ Andre Ward and film critic/radio personality Elvis Mitchell inside King’s Boxing Gym on 35th Avenue when an adorable little girl — all decked out in “Black Panther” gear — sheepishly approaches.
She wants to show off her amazing costume to Coogler, the mastermind behind the blockbuster superhero saga, and tell him that it’s her favorite movie.
Coogler’s face breaks into a wide smile. He is blown away. It’s yet another example of how the film, with its mostly black cast, shook up the status quo in Hollywood and inspired African-Americans everywhere.
It’s also one of many slices of Oakland life that the Epix docu-series captures as it follows Coogler around the city where he was born and informs his films. In “Elvis Goes There” (10 p.m. Monday, Epix), Mitchell travels the world with various filmmakers to their places of inspiration, exploring how each location shaped their work and identity. In coming weeks, he’ll present ride-alongs with Sofia Coppola, and Guillermo del Toro.
The Oakland episode starts with Coogler in the Grand Lake Theater, where he spent much of his youth gazing in wonder up at the big screen. He tells Mitchell that his was “a moviewatching family.”
“My mom was a real cinephile,” he said. “She couldn’t go to sleep without popping something in the VHS.”
Over the hourlong installment, Mitchell examines how Coogler has made his mark in Hollywood with three very different films — “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed” and “Black Panther” — and how he has successfully managed to blend social commentary with entertainment.
Along the way, Coogler accompanies Mitchell to various Oakland locales, including his elementary school (Glenview at Santa Fe), the neighborhood where he shot his USC student film and an intersection bearing a history marker that commemorates the Black Panther Party.
Mitchell also makes time to visit with other local, socially conscious filmmakers, including Boots Riley (“Sorry to Bother You”), Daveed Diggs (“Blindspotting”)
and Cheryl Dunye (“Watermelon Woman”), all of whom speak lovingly of how Oakland’s people, struggles and culture have inspired their work.
As for Coogler, there’s a telling segment in which he shares the screen with Saint Mary’s College English professor Rosemary Graham and speaks of the pivotal impact she had on his decision to go into filmmaking.
While taking her creative writing class, he wrote an essay about a life-or-death health scare experienced by his father.
Graham was so impressed with Coogler’s vivid writing style that she offered some career advice to her young student who, at the time, was more preoccupied with playing football.
“I think you should go to Hollywood and write screenplays,” she said.