‘Homeroom’ Review: Peter Nicks’ Doc Trilogy on Oakland’s Public Institutions Ends on a Personal Note
Drawing to a close with its most personal and difficult chapter, Peter Nicks’ loose trilogy of vérité documentaries about the public institutions of a single American city has now effectively done for Oakland what “The Wire” did for Baltimore, but without the safety net of a script. The tragedy of “Homeroom,” which drops us into a school year at Oakland High with the same degree of watchfulness that characterized “Waiting Room” and “The Force,” is that the chaos of real life is even more disruptive in this upbeat portrait of marginalized teenagers than it was in Nicks’ films about the intake procedures of the city’s underfunded hospital or the systemic violence of its overfunded police.
“Homeroom” is about the senior class of 2020. While these resilient kids may not be aware of the looming health crisis that will shit all over their spring semester and complicate whatever plans they may have,...
“Homeroom” is about the senior class of 2020. While these resilient kids may not be aware of the looming health crisis that will shit all over their spring semester and complicate whatever plans they may have,...
- 1/29/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
In Peter Nicks’ documentary Homeroom, premiering today at the Sundance Film Festival, Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf speaks with a small group of students of color from Oakland High School.
A white woman addressing Black and Latino young people, she earnestly tells them, “I want you all to see yourselves as I see you, like the most incredible, powerful, brilliant, amazing, talented human beings on the planet…I just encourage you to, like, know your power and claim it.”
These are the kind of pat “inspiring words” that are supposed to demonstrate sensitivity and respect for minority kids. But the Black and brown students in Homeroom aren’t waiting for permission from a white person to “claim their power.” Later in the film, a group of the same students lead a Black Lives Matter protest outside the mayor’s house, demanding she abolish a school police force operated by the Oakland Unified School District.
A white woman addressing Black and Latino young people, she earnestly tells them, “I want you all to see yourselves as I see you, like the most incredible, powerful, brilliant, amazing, talented human beings on the planet…I just encourage you to, like, know your power and claim it.”
These are the kind of pat “inspiring words” that are supposed to demonstrate sensitivity and respect for minority kids. But the Black and brown students in Homeroom aren’t waiting for permission from a white person to “claim their power.” Later in the film, a group of the same students lead a Black Lives Matter protest outside the mayor’s house, demanding she abolish a school police force operated by the Oakland Unified School District.
- 1/29/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Bill Maher returned to a subject directly in his wheelhouse during his closing monologue in Friday night’s episode of Real Time: cancel culture during the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests.
“White people need to stop trying to cancel other people whose heart is in the right place but don’t get it exactly right on the first try,” Maher said.
Ridiculing recent incidents involving white shaming of other white people’s responses to the protests over racial injustice, Maher managed to avoid the phrase “political correctness.” But he reeled off a series of examples, which he derided for effectively telling people they were “helping wrong.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf opened a hate crime investigation over “nooses” found on trees in a city park even though the Black man, Victor Sengbe, who put up the rope loops said he did so as an exercise rigging. Maher also mentioned the backlash...
“White people need to stop trying to cancel other people whose heart is in the right place but don’t get it exactly right on the first try,” Maher said.
Ridiculing recent incidents involving white shaming of other white people’s responses to the protests over racial injustice, Maher managed to avoid the phrase “political correctness.” But he reeled off a series of examples, which he derided for effectively telling people they were “helping wrong.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf opened a hate crime investigation over “nooses” found on trees in a city park even though the Black man, Victor Sengbe, who put up the rope loops said he did so as an exercise rigging. Maher also mentioned the backlash...
- 6/27/2020
- by Dade Hayes
- Deadline Film + TV
President Trump recently cleaned house at the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement so he could take a more aggressive approach to immigration. He revealed part of this approach on Monday night, tweeting that next week Ice “will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States.”
….long before they get to our Southern Border. Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third Agreement. The only ones who won’t do anything are the Democrats in Congress.
….long before they get to our Southern Border. Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third Agreement. The only ones who won’t do anything are the Democrats in Congress.
- 6/18/2019
- by Ryan Bort
- Rollingstone.com
The Oakland Raiders have only three games left in the NFL regular season, but a lawsuit filed today could see those gridiron battles being the last the relocating Bay Area team plays for a while, anywhere.
Almost six months after the Oakland City Council gave the go ahead for legal action over the franchise’s proposed moved to Sin City, City Attorney Barbara J. Parker tackled the team, the NFL itself and the “unlawful cartel” of the 31 other teams in the league on Monday with a potentially game stopping antitrust and breach of contract lawsuit that could see damages in the hundreds of millions.
“This is an action for damages and other relief arising out of the Defendants’ unlawful decision to boycott Oakland, as the host city of the Raiders, and relocate the Raiders to Las Vegas, Nevada,” said the jury trial seeking seven-count complaint filed Tuesday in federal court...
Almost six months after the Oakland City Council gave the go ahead for legal action over the franchise’s proposed moved to Sin City, City Attorney Barbara J. Parker tackled the team, the NFL itself and the “unlawful cartel” of the 31 other teams in the league on Monday with a potentially game stopping antitrust and breach of contract lawsuit that could see damages in the hundreds of millions.
“This is an action for damages and other relief arising out of the Defendants’ unlawful decision to boycott Oakland, as the host city of the Raiders, and relocate the Raiders to Las Vegas, Nevada,” said the jury trial seeking seven-count complaint filed Tuesday in federal court...
- 12/12/2018
- by Dominic Patten
- Deadline Film + TV
“Fourteen people came up to me and said you should be president,” says Melissa Murray, the interim dean of the Berkeley Law School. She is talking to Gavin Newsom, who just delivered the school’s commencement address. Newsom has been the mayor of San Francisco, and he’s currently lieutenant governor of California, an elected position that’s basically a glorified understudy for governor. Yet to see the mob scene of cooing law students around the 50-year-old candidate for governor — who stands six feet three with a full head of...
- 8/18/2018
- by Neil Strauss
- Rollingstone.com
Lea Thompson, the veteran actress who has directed her own daughter in her first feature, said on Thursday that getting sexually harassed during auditions “was like Kryptonite” – killing her ability to win roles in her younger years.
“I didn’t realize these things were unacceptable and how they kept me down all these years,” she said, speaking at TheWrap’s Power Women Breakfast in San Francisco. “I was in really bad auditions and people would start on me and it would take all my power away to the point where I didn’t get the job. It was like Kryptonite… It was obvious when a director was shopping for a girlfriend.”
See Video: Watch Lea Thompson, Madelyn Deutch at TheWrap's Power Women Breakfast Sf on Twitter Live
Thompson spoke at Dolby Laboratories headquarters in San Francisco with her daughter Madelyn Deutch, who she directed in “The Year of Spectacular Men,...
“I didn’t realize these things were unacceptable and how they kept me down all these years,” she said, speaking at TheWrap’s Power Women Breakfast in San Francisco. “I was in really bad auditions and people would start on me and it would take all my power away to the point where I didn’t get the job. It was like Kryptonite… It was obvious when a director was shopping for a girlfriend.”
See Video: Watch Lea Thompson, Madelyn Deutch at TheWrap's Power Women Breakfast Sf on Twitter Live
Thompson spoke at Dolby Laboratories headquarters in San Francisco with her daughter Madelyn Deutch, who she directed in “The Year of Spectacular Men,...
- 7/12/2018
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
As the Golden State Warriors have embarked on their journey through the 2018 NBA Playoffs, their star guard Stephen Curry has sat on the sideline, nursing a knee injury. While he sits out, however, the Warriors' sharpshooter is keeping busy on YouTube. On May 1, he will launch 5 Minutes From Home, a new series produced by Unanimous Media and Portal A, on his YouTube channel.
Each episode of 5 Minutes From Home will take place during Curry's journey from Oracle Arena, where the Warriors play, to his home. As he embarks on his regular route, he'll be joined by numerous special guests, ranging from YouTube stars like Rudy Mancuso to Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf. Along the way, Curry and his passengers will stop for a bite to eat. It all sounds similar to Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, except that Curry is slightly better at basketball than Jerry Seinfeld.
Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.
Each episode of 5 Minutes From Home will take place during Curry's journey from Oracle Arena, where the Warriors play, to his home. As he embarks on his regular route, he'll be joined by numerous special guests, ranging from YouTube stars like Rudy Mancuso to Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf. Along the way, Curry and his passengers will stop for a bite to eat. It all sounds similar to Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, except that Curry is slightly better at basketball than Jerry Seinfeld.
Visit Tubefilter for more great stories.
- 4/26/2018
- by Sam Gutelle
- Tubefilter.com
Stephen Curry hasn’t posted anything to his YouTube channel in more than four years.
Now the Golden States Warriors superstar is relaunching the channel, officialstephcurry30, with a slate of original series starting with “5 Minutes From Home,” which premieres May 1.
The new series comes from Curry’s recently formed production company, Unanimous Media, which on Monday announced a wide-ranging, multiyear development and production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment. The series and additional content for Curry’s YouTube channel is being co-developed, directed, and produced by digital studio Portal A in collaboration with Unanimous Media.
In “5 Minutes From Home,” Curry and a guest grab a late-night bite at a food truck near his Bay Area home after he heads home from a home game, chatting about a range of topics. Guests in the five-episode series include social-media stars Rudy Mancuso (pictured above with Curry) and Jesse Wellens; rapper Nipsey Hussle; Oakland...
Now the Golden States Warriors superstar is relaunching the channel, officialstephcurry30, with a slate of original series starting with “5 Minutes From Home,” which premieres May 1.
The new series comes from Curry’s recently formed production company, Unanimous Media, which on Monday announced a wide-ranging, multiyear development and production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment. The series and additional content for Curry’s YouTube channel is being co-developed, directed, and produced by digital studio Portal A in collaboration with Unanimous Media.
In “5 Minutes From Home,” Curry and a guest grab a late-night bite at a food truck near his Bay Area home after he heads home from a home game, chatting about a range of topics. Guests in the five-episode series include social-media stars Rudy Mancuso (pictured above with Curry) and Jesse Wellens; rapper Nipsey Hussle; Oakland...
- 4/25/2018
- by Todd Spangler
- Variety Film + TV
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