by SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD
The Last Black Man in San Francisco was a perfect July 4th gift – a hopeful respite from furious divisions in our country. Seeing this film is not a description that does justice to its quietly captivating qualities. More accurately, viewers are slowly, carefully drawn into the film’s unfolding on the streets of San Francisco. We become part of a city transformed and divided – scratch that – butchered by gentrification, a city that no longer welcomes immigrants, African Americans, creative spirits, and “gentle people.” A cruel, heartless, show-off city, where dogs are valued more than Black people.
This breakout film is so quietly, adeptly powerful that I actually saw myself on a depicted cable car, remembering the red rose pinned to my coat on a first trip to San Francisco in the 1960s – the first year anniversary of my first marriage. The truths I experienced in the film so overtook me that in my mind’s eye, the rose fell, crushed by the wheels on an upward, ambitious journey, leaving sliced petals on the track.
For only the extremely wealthy can now afford the outlandish expense of San Francisco, where Apple and Google employees abound, and one out of every 11,600 residents are billionaires. The Black population, manipulated and tossed aside, has dropped to about 5%. Yet, despite enormous pain of the poor and discarded, the protagonists in The Last Black Man in San Francisco radiate kindness, gentleness, caring, intimacy, and hope. When there is anger, it is based on the pain of seeing, of facing harsh truths.
Based on a true relationship, this semi-autobiographical drama focuses on the exquisite devotion of two Black men who met and bonded in their youth. Jimmie Fails plays himself (keeping his true name), and his friend Joe Talbot (a.k.a. Montgomery Allen) is played by the gifted Jonathan Majors (whose breakout film was White Boy Rick and who also appeared in the mini-series When We Rise). The Last Black Man in San Francisco, a directorial and full feature acting debut for both men, won January’s Sundance special jury and direction awards. Joe Talbot, Rob Richert, and Fails wrote the story together; the film adaptation was written by Talbot and Richert.
Amidst a background meticulously painted, Jimmie works in a nursing home, where his sensitivity and tenderness are, in a word, beautiful. A scene with a White woman whose once youthful beauty is apparent to one who takes the time to see her says everything about his character. Mont works in a fish store and deals with the tedium by dreaming of writing – and at every opportunity places wondrous words in a journal he carries everywhere.
Jimmie met Talbot (a fifth-generation native of the city, who grew up in a home of journalists) while living in a group home and attending the same Catholic school.In the film, however, they live in a common neighborhood, Hunter’s Point, where Black people struggle to stay afloat in an intense wave of gentrification. Though taunted by their peers, youths who ridicule them for their closeness and lack of rage, they are undaunted – traveling the city together on their skateboards, sometimes sharing one board, and taking long walks. They have so little, but long for more. And they continue to love a city that has treated them and their loved ones so callously.
Their longing centers on a universal desire – a safe and reliable home where love can blossom and creativity is nurtured. The true star of the film is the home of their dreams – a phenomenal San Francisco Victorian home in the Fillmore District, an area rich with immigrant and Black history, where Jimmie lived as a child and where family lore insists that his paternal grandfather built the semi-mansion. Forced out of the home at age 6, Jimmie squatted with his father James (Rob Morgan), and together they lived in projects and shelters, as well as their car. His mom had abandoned him many years before.
A strong difference between the friends, however, is that Mont has a devoted family, where wisdom, love, and laughter flow from Mont’s wise, generous, blind, and noble grandfather (Danny Glover), whom Mont cherishes. Fails spends days and nights welcomed at Mont’s crowded home, treated more like brother than friend, where he sleeps on the floor in Mont’s room.
Jimmie longs to return to the beloved home of his youth, and eventually Jimmie and Mont do. His paternal Aunt Wanda (Tichina Arnold) has stored the family’s furniture and keepsakes, and she gifts them to Jimmie. The friends begin a restoration process in a home that is not theirs, one they could never afford.
Yet, the restoration is not only on the home. It is internal, offering profound insights about the pain of growing up, and letting go of illusions, no longer needing their protection. In I-Thou genius, this complex but essential journey is woven into the hideous impact of poverty and racism, what urban renewal really means, and how cruelty reigns in the attitudes and treatment of the powerless.
In this respect The Last Black Man in San Francisco is not only about San Francisco. It is about the intense and dangerous challenges facing us all. It is about the horrid stain of slavery and its aftermath. It is about the necessity of an emotional home within. And that once that is in place, all we need is the luck and savvy to stay alive and chart our course.
SaraKay Smullens, MSW, LCSW, DCSW, CGP, CFLE, BCD, whose private and pro bono clinical social work practice is in Philadelphia, is a certified group psychotherapist and family life educator. She is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award (2004) and the Social Worker of the Year (2018) from the Pennsylvania chapter of NASW, and the 2013 NASW Media Award for Best Article. In 2018, she was one of five graduates of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice selected for the school's inaugural Hall of Fame. SaraKay is the author of Whoever Said Life Is Fair, Setting YourSelf Free, and Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work. Her writing has been published in peer-reviewed journals, newspapers, and blogs. SaraKay's professional life continues to be devoted to highlighting destructive societal forces through communication, advocacy and activism. Read more about her work at SaraKaySmullens.com.