SF State’s student-run publication since 1927
Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019
Volume 110, Issue 9
Queer students of color win at film festival ‘Last Black Man in San Francisco’ BY NOOR BAIG STAFF REPORTER
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Claire Weeks-Young sets up the camera while shooting “To You” for Campus Movie Fest Oct. 13 (Photo by MJ Johnson / Golden Gate Xpress) BY MJ JOHNSON CAMPUS NEWS EDITOR
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laire Weeks-Young bit her lip in confusion. It was her first time operating a camera and she had no other choice but to press on. Time was running out. This was the last day of shooting before her filmmaking group would have to submit its completed short movie. The group had just one week to shoot and edit its movie and the deadline was fast approaching. She waved her hand to get the attention of the actors preparing for the scene.
“Okay, we’re rolling … and action!” she shouted. Weeks-Young and a group of five other queer identifying students of color made their movie as part of Campus Movie Fest, the world’s largest student film festival which offers equipment and a platform to students to produce a short film in a week. “We’re all friends and so we thought it would be fun to collaborate on something creative,” said Weeks-Young, a Bio-chem major who cowrote, produced and shot the film.
The group wanted to emphasize a queer narrative in under five minutes for their short film. “To You,” the film they submitted to the Campus Movie Fest, follows two characters, Eric and Matthew, who struggle to be open about their relationship. “We’re queer people telling a queer story,” said Carlos Fuentes, a junior and sociology major who acted as the producer. “When you see queer movies, the writers are straight, the actors are straight and it’s just what they think we look like.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
No more private cars on Market Street BY COREY BROWNING STAFF REPORTER
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arket Street, San Francisco’s busiest pedestrian, bicycle and transit corridor, will soon be free from private vehicles, with wide protected bike lanes, larger sidewalks and sped-up transit lines from the Embarcadero to Gough Street.
Better Market Street, the project to completely renovate what is arguably the city’s most important street, has been in the works for nearly a decade undergoing environmental review and design changes. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors Sept.
15 unanimously approved the project, estimated by the city to cost more than $600 million. “This won’t just be a better Market Street. It will be a magnificent Market Street,” SFMTA board chair Malcolm Heinicke said during the meeting. Though construction is slated
to begin in 2021, a quick-build portion of the renovation, which will include new signage and road repainting, plans to give private vehicles the boot by early next year. CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
rom naked white men to charming sidewalk musicians to seemingly unhinged Muni riders, there are just some characters one can’t avoid for too long while living in San Francisco. And if you stay long enough, you’ll often find that you have become one of the crazy, brazen passersby that you so often complain about. This love-hate relationship with San Francisco is the foundation of one of the latest acclaimed movies about the city. “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” a new film directed and produced by Joe Talbot, tells the story of two friends, Jimmie and Mont, who search for a place to belong against the backdrop of a San Francisco that is growing less and less black. The film screened on campus Oct. 17, followed by a panel discussion with the cast and crew. Jimmie Fails stars as himself alongside Jonathan Majors, who plays his character’s best friend, Montgomery (Mont), a gentle, observant playwright. The two spend the film trying to buy — and eventually squatting in — a multimillion dollar Victorian style home that Jimmie’s family used to own. The film, which was five years in the making before hitting theaters, came out of years of Fails and Talbot making films together. They said this was their first feature film to be seen by the public. “A lot of movies that we made came out of things that happened to [Jimmie] or to me or to friends of ours ... and the truth is we didn’t know how movies like this were made,” Talbot said. “I dropped out of high school ... but we knew we really wanted to make a film and tell the story of what was happening in San Francisco, and watching the city that we love start to disappear in some ways.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
INCLUDED IN THIS ISSUE SF State scientists explore life potential on other planets
Men’s soccer team dominates the home field against East Bay
Astronomy: Page 2 Soccer: Page 7
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How the city is preparing the public for earthquakes and emergencies
NERT Alert: Page 5
10/21/19 10:02 PM