Bay-area filmmaker Spencer Wilkinson here highlights drawbacks of urban gentrification, and preserves—at least via cinema—a hidden history of Oakland's local heroes in arts/culture.
A vacant corner at the intersection of 14th and Alice Streets in downtown Oakland was mainly a canvas for gang-graffiti taggers. Then spray-paint artist Desi Mundo and muralist Pancho Peskador partner for a vibrant six-story wall display, "Universal Language," depicting the minorities represented by the block, this being the site of the Afro-centric Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts and a venerable Chinese Senior Center.
Outreach efforts with the local community, however, tend to be the stuff that makes conservative commentators laugh at the West Coast. Chinese elders want no depiction of hardship or negativity, just pride, and success (and maybe kung fu). A woman (identified only as "Jane Doe") gripes that the mural's heroic portrait scheme excludes white people—she thinks the dog walkers especially merit recognition. But after 2014 a worse menace comes with a building boom that makes the freshly painted plaza into prime real estate. One developer seeks to erect a parking garage that will partially obscure "Universal Language." He shows signs of wanting to come to an accord with Mundo and Peskador, but then a city-approved condo complex delivers the final blow.
Wilkinson does not underscore the point, but it seems that his chronicle, spanning several years, winds up being the most enduring record of the Quixotic public-arts project and tribute—more so when final credits reveal how many interviewees have passed away. The narrative introduces many of them, such as magisterial dancer Ruth Beckford, music teacher Joseph Chen, and, of course, Malonga Casquelourd himself, a Congolese dancer/drummer/choreographer, killed in a tragic car crash in 2003. All were grassroots types who persevered to carve out a legacy minus the sort of big-money support that is now gentrifying Oakland with new construction and pricing old institutions out.
From the short-lived existence of "Universal Language," we're told, a multi-racial activist coalition arose to preserve the character of the neighborhoods, but it is an ongoing struggle. The feature is as much about urban planning as it is the arts and social justice, and should appeal to specialized collections, though California territories are a particularly recommended venue. (Aud: C, P)