Black Film: Unscreened & Unstreamed celebrates creative Black film talent. We lean into Oakland-specific filmmakers in the first half of a year-long series of screenings, with a special focus on the audience in our selection of films and workshops.  These events are presented every other Thursday (mostly) at Oakstop from 6:30 to 9:00.
Click on the directors name to learn more
Upcoming Screening Register for the next event
Earth Mama
3/19/2026 – Earth Mama
Gia (Tia Nomore) is a pregnant woman fighting for custody of her two children in the foster care system. As she treks through each day, trying to tick all the boxes on the “fit mother” checklist, she fights not only the system itself but also her struggles and the ideals set by the culture she lives in. Not only do her born children hang in the balance, but the future of her unborn child, due any day, is up in the air.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
4/2/2026 – BaddDDD SONIA SANCHEZ
BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez (2015, 91 min)
Directed by Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater, and Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, this powerful documentary offers rare, intimate access to the life, work, and spellbinding performances of legendary poet and activist Sonia Sanchez. Describing herself as “a woman with razor blades between my teeth,” Sanchez is a force of nature—fierce, lyrical, and unapologetically political.
A founding figure of the Black Arts Movement, Sanchez has spent over six decades reshaping American poetry, politics, and culture through her work in the Black liberation, women’s rights, and peace movements. Her influence resonates deeply in contemporary spoken word and hip-hop, inspiring new generations to wield language as a tool for resistance and healing.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
Sonia Sanchez
Lake Merritt Monster
NOSEEUMS
4/16/2026 – Lake Merritt Monster & NOSEEUMS
The Lake Merritt Monster (16 min) – Directed by Ben Mulhound
What begins as a birthday celebration turns into a nightmare when young Ollie witnesses his mother being pulled into Lake Merritt by an unseen creature. Traumatized and guilt-ridden, Ollie spends the next three years searching for answers—and the mythical monster that took her.
With the help of his loyal friends and a wise, monster-hunting Granny, Ollie uncovers his family’s hidden legacy and prepares for one final confrontation that could change everything.
🎤 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
Noseeums (Feature Film) – Directed by Raven DeShay Carter
A sharp, atmospheric thriller that explores themes of land, legacy, and female rage. When Ember, a studious and reserved young woman, joins her edgy roommate Tessa and Tessa’s privileged friends on a weekend trip, tensions quickly unravel. What begins as an escape turns into something far more sinister, forcing Ember to confront buried emotions, interpersonal betrayals, and ancestral echoes she can’t ignore.
🎬 Director Raven DeShay Carter was drawn to the story for its bold take on property, rage, and the weight of generational ties. What started as a pitch quickly became a passion project—channeling personal and political fire into an unforgettable feature.
 Talk Back follows the screening
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
5/7/2026 – Orwell 2+2=5
George Orwell was one of the most radical and visionary authors of the 20th Century, whose 1940s novels, such as 1984 and Animal Farm, foretold a chilling, all-to-believable authoritarian future. Acclaimed director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), working in collaboration with the Orwell Estate, seamlessly interweaves historical clips, readings from Orwell’s diary, cinematic references, and dynamic modern day footage to craft not only a definitive portrait of the writer himself, but an entirely fresh take on how remarkably relevant and prophetic his work has become. Peck, who has his own personal connection to the material–as an 8-year-old he was forced to flee the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti–doesn’t just present the information but shows new ways of seeing it, drawing patterns and connections we might not otherwise realize. As terms like “Big Brother” and “Newspeak” become more prevalent and ominous with each passing day, Orwell: 2+2=5, featuring award-winning actor Damian Lewis as the voice of Orwell, provides a stirring depiction of the dangers of power and the fragility of so-called civilized society, told through the eyes of a man from the past who just might hold the key to the world’s future.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
Orwell 2+2=5
Black Rio! Black Power!
5/21/2026 – Black Rio! Black Power!
This documentary explores the rise of Rio de Janeiro’s 1970s soul music scene and its powerful role in the birth of the Black Rio Movement.
Through the story of movement leader Dom Filó, the film reveals how dance parties became spaces of Black cultural pride, resistance, and political identity during Brazil’s military dictatorship. It highlights the lasting impact on Brazilian music, the Black liberation movement, and global genres like Hip Hop and Funk.
🎬 Director’s Statement:
Over a decade of research uncovered how Black Rio served as the foundation for a cultural-political movement where Black Brazilians on the margins used music as resistance. It’s time to bring this hidden history to light. Subtitled.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
6/4/2026 – The Waiting Room
The Waiting Room (Feature Documentary)
Set inside Oakland’s Highland Hospital, this powerful film captures one day in the life of a public hospital stretched to its limits. Serving over 250,000 patients—many uninsured—Highland stands as a safety-net institution in a broken healthcare system.
Through intimate vérité storytelling and personal voiceovers, the film follows patients and staff navigating illness, bureaucracy, and survival. Stories range from a child with strep throat to a young man in need of urgent surgery, all unfolding in an ER that sees over 250 walk-ins a day.
The Waiting Room lays bare the human cost of healthcare inequality, while celebrating the resilience of a community bound by care, crisis, and hope.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
The Waiting Room
The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing
6/18/2026 – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (Feature Documentary)
Directed by Louis Massiah and co-directed by Monica Henriquez
The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (Feature Documentary)
This powerful biography celebrates the life and legacy of writer, editor, and activist Toni Cade Bambara, whose work was a driving force in 20th-century cultural and political movements. From her Harlem roots to her role as a self-described “culture worker,” the film explores her impact through rare archival footage and intimate interviews with those who knew her best—including Toni Morrison, Haile Gerima, and other artists, organizers, and scholars.
Through storytelling and reflection, The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing honors a woman whose words and actions continue to inspire generations of creative resistance.
🎼 Original Score by Jerome Jennings
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
Previous Screenings (All Dates)
8/14/2025 – Creating Space: HomecomingÂ
Black Film: Unseen & Unstreamed kicks off with Creating Space, a powerful program spotlighting Oakland’s own Nijla Mu’min.
Catch her acclaimed debut feature JINN—a heartfelt coming-of-age story about a young Black girl whose mother becomes Muslim and she must navigate faith, identity, and self-discovery. Then, be among the first to see her new short film NOOR, a tender story of connection between a Black woman and an Arab bodega worker amidst unexpected tragedy.
Both screenings will be followed by a special Talk-Back with Nijla herself who is also a Muslim woman.
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free event — registration required
8/28/2025 – Idea Generation: A Writer’s Workshop
Unlock your voice with award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, and author Rae Shaw in this dynamic 2.5 – hour writing workshop.
Hosted by the multi-talented SF State professor and author of The Short: Writing Tools to Free the Imagination, this session is designed for aspiring, emerging, and experienced writers alike. Rae will share her go-to techniques and creative methods to help you break through blocks and ignite your screenwriting practice.
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
✍️ Free workshop — registration required
Rae Shaw
UNSCREENED & UNSTREAMED
JINN by Nijla Mu’min.
NOOR by Nijla Mu’min.
Locks by Ryan Coogler
9/11/2025 – Summoning Justice
Experience Summoning Justice, a stirring collection of early short films by visionary filmmakers whose work explores social justice, resilience, and collective triumph.
Featuring powerful stories from Barry Jenkins (Remigration), Ryan Coogler (Locks), Niema Jordon (Labor), and more, this program showcases the beginnings of brilliance from artists who continue to shift culture and spark change.
Stay for a Talk Back with featured filmmakers—including a special conversation with Rae Shaw and Niema Jordon on how short films serve as creative blueprints and industry launch pads.
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎬 Free screening — registration required
Remigration by Barry Jenkins
Sareeta Young
9/25/2025 – Creating Smartphone Stories
Got a cell phone? Then you’ve got a film studio in your pocket.
No experience? No problem. This collaborative, on-the-go workshop is designed to spark your creativity and help you turn everyday moments into cinematic stories. Just clear some memory, bring your curiosity, and get ready to think outside the frame.
📍 This session takes place at Lake Merritt. Once you register, we’ll send you the exact meetup spot.
🎬 Led by Sareeta Young — award-winning filmmaker, photographer, and founder of BLKREELS. A UCLA Film & TV alum and educator at Berkeley City College, Sareeta is passionate about accessible media and community storytelling.
🎟️ Free workshop — registration required
10/9/2025 – Growing into Strength
What does it mean to be “Black Female Strong”?
Growing into Strength is a curated program of powerful short films that explore Black womanhood, identity, and resilience. These early works center the voices and journeys of Black girls and women navigating personal transformation, spiritual growth, and resistance in the face of systemic challenges.
🎬 Screenings include:
-
Rae Shaw’s Black Kung Fu Chick (23 min)
A teenage Black girl discovers her inner power through martial arts, inspiring young women of color to find confidence, discipline, and strength in unexpected places. -
Zenibu Irene Davis’s Mother of the River (28 min)
Set in the 1850s, this magical realist story follows a young enslaved girl who finds guidance and healing through a mystical woman in the woods. Through their bond, she learns about independence, honor, and humility. A rare and tender portrayal of slavery from a young Black girl’s perspective. -
Cat Brooks & Elizabeth Carter’s Bottled Spirits (34 min)
In West Oakland, middle-aged Louise is nearly crushed by the emotional toll of gentrification as her beloved community transforms around her. A story of memory, place, and the will to remain rooted. -
Cheryl Dunye’s Janine (6 min)
A queer teenager releases years of hidden emotion in this intimate confessional about a complicated friendship. A raw and honest portrait of identity and longing. - Jessica Jones‘s On the Pulse of Life (Short Documentary)
An experimental film centered on Black mothers in Oakland, capturing the intimate moments leading up to birth. In collaboration with BElovedBIRTH Black Centering, the film sheds light on the birth justice movement as a path toward equity in maternal health.
🎤 Artist Talk Back follows the screenings, featuring appearances by Rae Shaw and Cat Brooks.
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free event — registration required
Black Kung Fu Chick by Rae Shaw
Bottled Spirits by Cat Brooks & Elizabeth Carter
DeShuna Spencer (KweliTV)
10/23/2025 – Distribution & Streaming
Discover what it takes to build a streaming platform from the ground up in this special screening and conversation: Distribution & Streaming with DeShuna Spencer (KweliTV).
Founder and CEO of KweliTV, DeShuna Spencer shares her journey from concept to creation—building one of the most dynamic platforms dedicated to global Black storytelling. In this unique session, DeShuna will showcase a curated selection of trailers or clips from her favorite featured works and speak candidly about:
🎬 How she entered the streaming space
🚀 The challenges and triumphs of launching KweliTV
🌍 The current landscape for Black and African diaspora films—domestically and abroad
🗣️ Her personal mission for equity in media, and the future of independent Black film distribution
đź’¬ The session concludes with a live Talk Back between DeShuna Spencer and California Newsreel’s Cornelius Moore (via Zoom).
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
💻 Hybrid format — in-person screening with Zoom conversation
🎟️ Free event — registration required
11/6/2025 – A Family Affair
Join us for a special screening of Uzikee (90 min), a deeply personal feature documentary exploring the life and legacy of Washington D.C.’s “Ancestral Sculptor,” Uzikee—a master artist whose work blends African aesthetics with Afrofuturist vision.
This intimate portrait, directed by his nephew Doug Harris, offers a powerful look at Black artistry, legacy, and intergenerational inspiration.
🎤 Talk Back to follow the screening with filmmaker Doug Harris and Cheryl Fabio.
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free event — registration required
11/20/2025 – A Child’s Eye View of Incarceration & Post Incarceration
Join us for a powerful screening of Daughters (2024, 107 min), a deeply moving documentary that explores the lives of young girls navigating relationships with their incarcerated fathers. Following four families over years, the film captures their emotional reunions and the lead-up to a bittersweet celebration: the “Date with Dad” daddy-daughter dance inside a prison.
Directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton (CEO of Girls for a Change) and executive produced by Kerry Washington, Daughters offers a rare and heartfelt look at the human side of incarceration through the eyes of children.
🎤 Post-screening discussion facilitated by Dr. Derethia DuVal, Oakland-based Ph.D. and Marriage & Family Therapist.
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
Doug Harris & Doug Harris Jr.
Daughters by by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton
Fantastic Negrito: Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Evolutionary Blues: West Oakland’s Music Legacy
12/4/2025 – Oakland’s Music Legacy (Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?)
Experience the raw power of music, mental health, and resilience in the documentary Fantastic Negrito: Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? (2022, 91 min).
This intimate film follows Fantastic Negrito, Oakland’s Grammy-winning blues artist, as he confronts personal demons and the broader mental health crisis impacting his community. As he crafts his most vulnerable album yet, Negrito wrestles with a haunting question: In a sick society, how do you keep from going crazy?
🎬 Directed by Francisco Núñez Capriles, this film is as much about survival and creativity as it is about legacy and place.
🎤 Talk Back to follow featuring one of the film’s producers and media curator Cornelius Moore (California Newsreel).
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
12/18/2025 – Oakland’s Music Legacy (Evolutionary Blues)
Step into the rhythm and roots of West Oakland with a special screening of Evolutionary Blues: West Oakland’s Music Legacy (2017, 90 min).
This soulful documentary chronicles the rise of a vibrant post-WWII Black community along Seventh Street—where war workers, families, and musicians built a thriving cultural hub. Through the voices of over 30 local artists, Evolutionary Blues traces the evolution of Oakland’s unique blues scene and its lasting impact on American music.
🎤 Talk Back to follow with filmmaker Cheryl Fabio, reflecting on community, culture, and the enduring sound of Oakland.
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest
1/22/2026 – Prized PiecesÂ
Episode 5: We Don’t See Color (1996–2013)
Academics and organizers unpack the complexities of affirmative action and how shifting demographics have reshaped the conversation around school desegregation.
Episode 6: What Comes After Hope? (2008–2015)
The Obama era brings both historic symbolism and painful contradictions—marked by the rise of police brutality and the birth of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
2/5/2026 – Lorraine Hansberry, Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart
The documentary Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart is the first in-depth presentation of Hansberry’s complex life, using her personal papers and archives, including home movies and rare photos, as source material. The film explores the influences that shaped Hansberry’s childhood, future art, and activism. Filmmaker and Peabody Award-winner Tracy Heather Strain (Unnatural Causes, I’ll Make Me a World, American Experience: Building the Alaska Highway) crafts the story of one woman who, like many of her generation, believed that words could change society. Family, friends and colleagues, including Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte, her sister Mamie Hansberry, Lloyd Richards, Amiri Baraka and Louis Gossett, Jr., share their personal memories of Hansberry, offering an intimate look at a woman who was, as Poitier says in the film, “reaching into the essence of who we were, who we are, and where we came from.”
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart
Acts of Reparation
2/19/2026 – Acts of Reparation
From kitchen tables to porches, lost cemeteries to discovered diaries, their journeys lead to unexpected opportunities that transform their friendship, families, and communities. In Monore, Louisiana, Selina gathers stories from a sisterhood of her great aunties who together sleuth to uncover the buried tales of their ancestors. In Penfield, Georgia, Macky challenges generations of his kin to dismantle the privilege they inherited from enslavers and support Black leaders nearby. In Acts of Reparation, we see every day Americans become the change they want to see in the world.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
3/5/2026 – Post Atlantic – Art of Dewey Crumpler
Short Summary:Â 29 minutes
What is it to resist?… to persist in opposition to those in power? POST ATLANTIC explores the visionary world of legendary African American painter and philosopher Dewey Crumpler as he connects the slave trade to modern globalization and demonstrates what it means to be a working artist with a conscience in today’s society.
Filmmaker Bios:
Producer/Director Alan Snitow and Deborah Kaufman’s films include the award-winning “Town Destroyer,“ “Company Town,” “Between Two Worlds,” “Thirst”, “Secrets of Silicon Valley”, and “Blacks and Jews.” Their films have been broadcast on public television and at festivals around the world, and have been used by schools, clergy, policy makers, community groups and activists.
 Talk Back follows the screening
đź“Ť Oakstop, 1st Floor Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland
🎟️ Free screening — registration required
