In contrast, as a graduate student at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism in 2013, I wrote about Jordan Thierry’s documentary, The Black Fatherhood Project. I attended the screening on a first date with a beautiful woman. Thirteen years later, we’re raising an amazing child together.
My thesis film from that UC Berkeley graduate program, a documentary titled TDK: The Dream Kontinues, was shown at the 2015 Oakland International Film Festival. If ever there was a “I made it” moment, watching my own work up on the Grand Lake Theatre’s screen was one of them.
Members of the cast and crew of ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ hold a Q&A on stage at the Grand Lake Theatre in 2019. (Pendarvis Harshaw)
In 2019, I hosted a discussion with the cast from The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and in 2021 I talked with filmmaker Pete Nicks after a screening of his documentary Homeroom — both significant contributions to local film.
I’ve also seen the Grand Lake’s neighborhood change. Across the intersection, the building once known as Lakeview Elementary School was eventually converted to Oakland Unified School District’s Student Assignment Center. The greasy-yet-delicious Kwik Way fast-food joint down the block turned into to a vegan restaurant before it shuttered a few years ago. The park across the street got remodeled, and the farmer’s market there on Saturdays is now a community staple.
Even the streets themselves have been drastically altered. When the theater broke ground, the Key System’s trollies ran up and down the surrounding avenues. Meanwhile, last year, the intersection out front hosted a sideshow.
Nigel ‘Tito’ Bryson, a friend of the late Oscar Grant III, stands in front of the Grand Lake Theatre for a screening of Ryan Coogler’s ‘Fruitvale Station’ in 2013. The theater, which Coogler has called his favorite movie theater in the world, turns 100 this week. (Pendarvis Harshaw)
The building has seen renovations and expansions; it started as a single theater, and expanded to four screens. The refurbished sign atop the building is part of the Lake Merritt skyline, and the marquee is essentially a community member itself, voicing the political messages of theater owner Allen Michaan and echoing sentiments shared by many in the Bay Area.
While there have been other theaters with deep community impact and memories, many of them are now defunct: the Century 8, the Coliseum Drive-in and the old United Artists Emery Bay theater, to name just a few.