Glide Memorial Church stands as a beacon of welcome and home in the midst of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, as it has for decades, offering services and 2,000 meals daily to the neighborhood’s impoverished, sometimes troubled, and often unhoused residents.
Now, it is also the setting for “Fire Within,” Laetitia Jacquart and Corinne Sullivan’s insightful documentary that portrays a year in the life of this extraordinary house of worship and those it serves.
The filmmakers spent a year with the community, finding among its members Terry and Harry, group facilitators working to help people living at the margins gain a stable foothold in society; Dawn, a single mother separated from her children; and Tony, a Black gay man struggling with the challenges of being homeless.
The film screens Friday, June 12, at the Smith Rafael Film Center as part of Celebrate Pride Month with CAFilm: A Weekend of LGBTQ+ Cinema, with Jacquart, the Rev. Harry Williams and Miss Terry in attendance.
It will also screen at the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival at the Roxie Theater on June 22.