{"id":464377,"date":"2026-09-15T10:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464377\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T10:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:46:12","slug":"oaklands-newest-movie-star-is-an-old-college-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/464377\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland’s newest movie star is an old college campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Oakland filmmaker Joslyn Rose<\/a> first toured the former Holy Names Campus University last fall, she had no sense of what possibilities the 70-year-old site might offer as a film location.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The veteran director, producer and writer has been in the filmmaking industry since 2003. She\u2019s directed music videos for Bay Area hip-hop legends Too $hort and E-40; produced special programs for BET; and directed \u201cStand,\u201d an Emmy-nominated Showtime documentary about basketball player and activist Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. The documentary features interviews with Warriors player Steph Curry and Oscar-winning actor from Hayward, Mahershala Ali. <\/p>\n

Rose, who has filmed various of her projects in Oakland, got to work on her most recent project, the short film \u201cThe Listeners,\u201d at the Oakland Hills Campus for the first time. The short, which she directed, premiered last week at Mills College \u2013 Northeastern University as part of the Oakland International Film Festival<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taking photos and I was just starting to brainstorm,\u201d Rose said. \u201cIt was an exciting moment to find a place I could just shoot at. There\u2019s a Division II basketball gym. There\u2019s a hospital, a library with books in it. I was hyped.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campus, located on Mountain Boulevard next to State Route 13, closed its doors in 2023<\/a> after 155 years due to a decline in enrollment and other financial challenges. In 2021, Mills College, facing similar issues<\/a>, ultimately merged with Northeastern University.<\/p>\n

The Holy Names campus was bought in 2023 for $65 million by the commercial real estate firm BH Properties, which initially said it intended to keep the location as an education facility. But the company has not yet attracted a college or university to take over, although there have been bites. Earlier this month, the Oakland HBCU initiative, a task force<\/a> seeking to bring a historically Black college or university to Oakland, toured the campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 59-acre campus with breathtaking views, includes a chapel, library, classrooms, biology labs, nursing classrooms, a dining hall, a 500-bed dorm and a 450-seat theater, the Valley Center for the Performing Arts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luis Guerra, the Holy Names facilities manager kept on by the new owners, told The Oaklandside that when the site was a university, events and other rentals had to be timed around the school schedule. Now that it is empty, he said, there are more possibilities \u2014 including for filmmakers.<\/p>\n

The Valley Center for the Performing Arts, which didn\u2019t shutter when the university did, has been hosting performances by multiple Oakland arts organizations, including the Oakland Gay Men\u2019s Chorus and the Dimensions Dance Theater.<\/p>\n

A new life as a film location<\/p>\n

As BH Properties worked on a permanent plan for the campus, the owners brought on Daniel Cardenas as director of campus operations in 2024 to find ways to rent out the facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cardenas and Guerra met with Heather McLean, a Bay Area-based location scout who has worked on projects such as \u201cBlindspotting,\u201d \u201cI am Virgo,\u201d and \u201cFreaky Tales.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHeather and [Bay Area producer] Monica Castro told us to get involved with SFFilm<\/a> and Make It Bay<\/a>,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cSo I started emailing them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardenas said that two of the people who responded to his emails were Sam Bempong and Grace Porras, who \u2014 along with Rose \u2014 are among the co-founders of Make It Bay, also known as the East Bay Film Collective, which has been instrumental in bringing filmmaking to Oakland<\/a> and pushing the city to provide filmmakers who bring production here with Oakland tax incentives<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re amazing people who truly love our Oakland community,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cThis was great because they want to bring more films to Oakland. We have this resource that we didn\u2019t know how to market, especially [to] the film community, and they\u2019ve been instrumental in giving us ways, tools and knowledge on how to get the word out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, the campus was renamed the Oakland Hills Campus<\/a>, and an initiative was launched to market the campus as a film location. Cardenas, Guerra and the Make It Bay team hosted a mixer<\/a> in August 2025, featuring music, cocktails and a campus tour, to let filmmakers know that the facilities were open for rentals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, District 3 councilmember Carroll Fife, District 4 councilmember Janani Ramachandran, filmmakers W. Kamau Bell and Niema Jordan, Gaby Arvizu of Proximity Media, and producer Seany Heavy were among those who attended the mixer, along with Bempong and Porras.<\/p>\n

\"\"From left to right: Grace Porras and Sam Bempong of the filmmaking collective Make It Bay with Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee in August 2025 at the unveiling of a film initiative at the former Holy Names University. Credit: Azucena Rasilla\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, we thought, if we get 50 people out here, that\u2019s 50 people that didn\u2019t know about us before,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cAt the end of the day, we had close to 300 that showed up and a lot of production companies that also came. At that moment we knew we had some real interest in filming here, and from that event came a lot of film opportunities for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since launching the film initiative last summer, Cardenas said that close to 50 projects have already filmed on site, ranging from commercials to short films, web series and features.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of taken on a life of its own,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cIt has helped us promote a lot of the areas of the campus that weren\u2019t getting used before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The former Holy Names campus has been used as a film location since last summer. Credit: Azucena Rasilla\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Cardenas said the most sought-out locations have been the chapel and the nursing labs, which resemble spaces in a hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bay Area-based location scout Frances Reyes-Bolinger has worked on such films as Boots Riley\u2019s \u201cI Love Boosters\u201d and on series such as the STARS show \u201cBlindspotting.\u201d She recently booked the campus\u2019s lab classrooms and the dorms\u2019 common area for projects she was working on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting into school districts becomes tricky because educators are protective of the students,\u201d Reyes-Bolinger said. \u201cSo, the opportunity to have access to these spaces without impacting a school is nice. That is one of the great things the Oakland Hills Campus has.\u201d She also appreciates that the campus offers secure parking for expensive film equipment.<\/p>\n

Reyes-Bolinger said that the site \u201cinvites people to think a little bit out of the box\u201d in how a campus\u2019s grounds can be utilized.<\/p>\n

\u2018It looked like magic in there\u2019<\/p>\n

Rose said that after visiting the campus last year, she put the potential location in her back pocket while she worked on other projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so excited that day that I started sending the location photos to my crew and some of my actors,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of times, a location will inspire and inform a concept. Sometimes, as filmmakers, we go see a space, and it might inspire what we want to shoot there, or what we want to write because we know something\u2019s available to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The campus, she said, \u201cgave me some really exciting ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not long after, \u201cThe Listeners,\u201d a project with Super Bowl champion Vernon Davis, became the perfect opportunity to film at the site in the Oakland hills.<\/p>\n

Rose teamed up with Dominique Mouton, another Oakland filmmaker, to work on the script, which tackles mental health issues, a topic on which Davis has been outspoken<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The Listeners\u2019 short film evolved from a combination of seeing the campus in Oakland, knowing what I had available to me, which was a campus hospital and a library,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd, this idea that I could make something in there about mental health and music, being the theme around how we use it for healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Actor and producer Blair Underwood (left) with actor Vernon Davis on set at the former Holy Names Campus for the filming of the short film \u201cThe Listeners\u201d by Oakland filmmaker Joslyn Rose. Credit: courtesy of Giovanni Herrera<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Rose and her crew filmed at the Oakland Hills Campus with an ensemble cast<\/a> that includes Davis, \u201cL.A. Law\u201d star Blair Underwood, Cindy Herron of the Oakland R&B group En Vogue, and the actors Simone Leanora, of Oakland; B\u00e9chir Sylvain; and Taylor Talley.<\/p>\n

Rose remembers the first time she saw the church at the campus. \u201cThere was this beautiful organ on the upper level, and the stained glass windows on all sides. The architecture was phenomenal,\u201d Rose said. \u201cAll this light was coming through the stained glass. It looked like magic in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She worked with, singer, songwriter, and composer Jon Batiste and producer Ernest Dion Wilson, known as No I.D., to create original music for the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just a lot of Oakland love, in the cast and crew,\u201d Rose said. \u201cIt felt like we were all there for the love of Oakland and the Bay, and seeing filmmaking happen in these spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that campus had not existed, \u2018The Listeners\u2019 would not exist. Not in the way it came to be,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Permits were pulled to turn the campus into housing<\/p>\n

Around the same time that Rose and her crew were filming \u201cThe Listeners\u201d at the campus, in February of this year, BH Properties filed an application with the city\u2019s planning department to redevelop the entire campus. The application says the plan would be to demolish 14 existing structures and build 165 new housing units while preserving the chapel, belltower, and performing arts center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a particularly compelling location, and we believe that homes of this type can be delivered in the near term,\u201d Jim Brooks, president of BH Properties, said in a statement<\/a> to The San Francisco Chronicle in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Aug. 5, BH Properties followed up by filing a Zoning Worksheet, a document to verify that the proposed redevelopment complies with all of the local zoning codes; that document is not yet publicly available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Cardenas, the housing redevelopment is just \u201cone direction\u201d for the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe housing project is one way that BH Properties is reimagining this campus,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe though that if we get the right people in here, BH is always open to new ideas. And while it may have one idea that it\u2019s moving forward with, it\u2019s not to say that if a big filmmaker or company came in here and wanted to turn this into a film studio, I would say all ideas are on the table. Nothing is final until it\u2019s actually final.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cardenas said the site has also served as a training facility for several Hayward Police Department specialized teams, as well as for the Oakland Police Department. Neither police department immediately responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Cardenas said his and Guerra\u2019s job is to bring in revenue from the site and do right by the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis film initiative hits both ends,\u201d Cardenas said. \u201cI think they love the fact that we are getting these opportunities to bring local filmmakers, art, theater and dance into this campus that are generating some revenue and at the same time, a dent and a positive impact for Oakland culture, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Actors Bechir Sylvain (left) and Vernon Davis with director Joslyn Rose on set at the library of the former Holy Names campus now the Oakland Hills Campus. Credit: courtesy of Giovanni Herrera<\/p>\n

Jim Brooks, president of BH Properties told The Oaklandside by email that there is no \u201ctimetable set as to when the film initiative would cease to be a strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to make progress with filming opportunities and expect to continue that effort for the foreseeable future,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cWe have developed very positive momentum through the work of both Daniel and Luis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose said she\u2019d like to see the site become a permanent film location.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to see the community and the greater television film industry continue to utilize this space and help it to not only to stay in existence but thrive,\u201d she said, \u201cso that we could also use it as a prototype for what else we could do in Oakland.\u201d<\/p>\n

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