{"id":292315,"date":"2026-04-30T00:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292315\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T00:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T00:59:09","slug":"inside-electric-oakland-premiere-of-boots-rileys-i-love-boosters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/292315\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside electric Oakland premiere of Boots Riley\u2019s \u2018I Love Boosters\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Writer-director<\/p>\n

Writer-director Boots Riley is the center of attention on the red carpet before a 69th San Francisco International Film Festival screening of \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Tommy Lau\/SFFilm\"From<\/p>\n

From left: actors Poppy Liu, LaKeith Stanfield, Eiza Gonz\u00e1lez and director Boots Riley stand in front of the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland before a screening of their film “I Love Boosters” at on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Tommy Lau\/SFFilm\"Fans<\/p>\n

Fans of \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d pose before a screening of the film at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, as part of the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Tommy Lau\/SFFilm<\/p>\n

This time, Boots Riley<\/a> is not sorry to bother you.<\/p>\n

Eight years after his debut film screened in his hometown<\/a>, he returned to Oakland\u2019s Grand Lake Theatre<\/a> on Tuesday, Aug. 28, as a fully formed filmmaker. Riley presented the West Coast premiere of his latest movie, \u201cI Love Boosters<\/a>,\u201d not once but twice to sold-out crowds during the 69th San Francisco International Film Festival<\/a>\u2019s centerpiece event.<\/p>\n

69th San Francisco International Film Festival: Through Monday, May 4. $16-$19 for general admission programs; premium priced programs vary. At various venues in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. For a full schedule, tickets and more information, go to www.sffilm.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen so many films here since I was a kid. I think \u2018Superman II,\u2019 was the first,\u201c Riley recalled, adding that his first project \u201c\u2018Sorry to Bother You<\/a>\u2019 did so well for (the Grand Lake) they gave me a lifetime pass, so I just go see all my movies here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Since that formative childhood, Riley, the son of a civil rights attorney, has channeled his political activism as a rapper and leader of the hip-hop group The Coup. One of its signature songs was \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d (2006), which pays tribute to booster gangs<\/a> who find cracks in a system of economic consumerism designed to exploit class division.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s a rollicking, colorful and breathlessly fast-moving absurdist comedy starring Keke Palmer<\/a>, Naomi Acki, Taylour Paige, Demi Moore<\/a>, LaKeith Stanfield<\/a>, Eiza Gonz\u00e1lez and Poppy Liu.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

From left, Naomie Ackie, Keke Palmer, Poppy Liu and Taylour Paige in Boots Riley\u2019s \u201cI Love Boosters,\u201d<\/p>\n

Neon\/TNS<\/p>\n

Stanfield\u2019s appearance was his first visit to Oakland since starring in \u201cSorry to Bother You.\u201d Since then, he was nominated for an Academy Award (best supporting actor for 2021\u2019s \u201cJudas and the Black Messiah<\/a>\u201d), got sober, married and became a father.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt just feels beautiful,\u201d Stanfield told the Chronicle the next morning at the 1 Hotel in San Francisco, joined by Riley who admitted he only had \u201cmaybe three hours of sleep\u201d after being the last one standing at SFFilm\u2019s party at Crybaby, an Oakland nightclub. \u201cTo smell the air and feel the energy here, it feels the same as I remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Inside the theater Tuesday night, the two joined Gonz\u00e1lez and Liu for a Q&A after the first screening and a pre-show discussion before the second. During the Q&A, Stanfield told the funniest story of the night onstage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"From<\/p>\n

From left: actors Poppy Liu, Eiza Gonz\u00e1lez, LaKeith Stanfield, director Boots Riley and SFFilm Director of Programming Jessie Fairbanks onstage at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland after a screening of “I Love Boosters” at on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Tommy Lau\/SFFilm<\/p>\n

Without spoiling it, his character in \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d is involved in an outrageous erotic scene. Stanfield revealed that when he read that scene in the script, he knew would need to get permission from his wife, model Kasmere Trice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was terrified when I read it, because I was like, \u2018I have to do what now?\u2019\u201d Stanfield recalled as the crowd roared with laughter. \u201cIt was very beautifully descriptive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The actor then convinced Riley to cast his wife in the scene, and the filmmaker agreed.<\/p>\n

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Other highlights included Liu, a regular on the HBO Max sitcom \u201cHacks,\u201d performing the splits onstage after Gonz\u00e1lez dared her to do it. (She happily did it on the red carpet, too.)<\/p>\n

\"Poppy<\/p>\n

Poppy Liu does the splits as LaKeith Stanfield helps out on the red carpet before a screening of their film \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on Tuesday, April 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Tommy Lau\/SFFilm<\/p>\n

Of course, the main attraction was the film, which the audience reacted with ecstatic enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Riley was thrilled, but had one last ask, for both crowds.<\/p>\n

Distributor Neon will release \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d in about 2,500 theaters across North America on May 22. Unlike \u201cSorry to Bother You,\u201d which got a slow rollout and built its success through word of mouth, the pressure is on.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe gotta do amazing that first weekend,\u201d Riley said. \u201cIf you liked this movie, post about it. Keep posting. Tell your friends. And come back with more people on opening weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

But first, SFFilm has added a third screening of \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d at the festival at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, May 3, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco at 3200 California St. Go to sffilm.org<\/a> for tickets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer-director Boots Riley is the center of attention on the red carpet before a 69th San Francisco International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[329,332,839,838,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-292315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-east-bay","tag-festivals","tag-movies-and-tv","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}