The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul and the Capri Theater present Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, the acclaimed Black Panther director’s first feature. The film is a beautiful and devastating look at the final hours of Oscar Grant who was murdered by police at the eponymous train station in Oakland, California. The film will be followed by a discussion led by D.A. Bullock, community organizer and filmmaker. The screening begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 7 at the Capri Theater, 2027 West Broadway. Tickets to First Thursday Films are $5; purchase in advance at mspfilm.org or at the door the night of the show.
Fruitvale Station depicts, with stunning honesty, the story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old from Hayward, California, on the final day of his life, before he was killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day 2009. The movie begins with the actual footage of Oscar Grant and his friends being detained by the BART Police at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland on January 1, 2009, at 2:15 a.m., right before the killing. As the film progresses, director Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan paint a cinematic portrait of a young man coming to grips with adulthood, with responsibility and his place in modern American society, by examining the many details of this young man’s life and his relationships with his family, friends and community. Coogler shows Grant as a complex, troubled and loving human being, a man who, like everyone, has made mistakes in his life, and a man whose death was tragically premature.
Each First Thursday Films screening at the Capri is followed by a passionate discussion of the movie. For Fruitvale Station we welcome D.A. Bullock. Bullock is a community organizer who uses art to supplant narratives of hopelessness with ones that promote and inspire collective understanding. He wants to foster a radical reimagining of North Minneapolis that impacts how long-standing community issues are addressed. Bullock’s work seeks to develop new social art and engagement practices to affect public policy change in the areas of criminal justice, economic development, and social and racial justice. He is a board member at Twin Cities Media Alliance and Pollen, and is Co-founder at Underground Media Collective.
More info: thecapritheater.org or mspfilm.org. Capri programs are generously supported by the Best Buy Foundation and Target.