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LMGI COMPASS
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Spring 2020
of the city's massive hills, with the tip of the Bay Bridge poking up
over the street behind him. It's a shot that, when considering the
limited budget they had to work with, is all the more stunning. Lee
had made it clear to the filmmakers from the moment he joined
the production that he would not allow for cutting any corners.
"With a lot of them being first-time filmmakers, I needed them
to know that I would not be doing any guerrilla-style shooting.
Everything had to be permitted and by the book."
The shot on Jones Street would be one of the most logistically
complicated on the film and required working closely with the
SFPD. Initially, Lee and the filmmakers had an image in mind
of how they could pull it off, but in speaking with the police
department, they quickly realized that it would be a much larger
operation than they had imagined. "I think we had 12 or 13 officers
to lock up all the side streets along the run," said Lee, "and the
camera was something like 10 blocks away on Gough Street. It was
definitely tricky."
Looking Forward
Lee is proud of the film and believes that everyone involved
accomplished or exceeded what they set out to create. He's also
gratified that he got to once again be a part of telling what he
believes is an important story.
"The movie is called The Last Black Man in San Francisco," Lee
said, "but it's not a story about black people … or even San
Francisco. There are so many people around the world who have
to leave their cities because they can't afford to stay. Almost
nothing that existed in Manhattan when I was growing up exists
there anymore. Everything is 20 times more expensive and there's
this wave of people from the suburbs now living in the city and it
just feels like this slowed-down way of life … It hurts. So I'm glad
the story got out."
The film premiered at Sundance where it was nominated for the
Grand Jury prize, won the award for Best Director, and for the
first time in the festival's history, a Special Jury Award for Creative
Collaboration was created to honor the film. Despite his pride
in the film and its reception, it definitely took its toll. "Trying to
make it all work with basically just myself, Jessica Lee Malloure
and one other staffer was crazy. There was a lot of wheeling and
dealing and it is, by far, the hardest show I've ever done. I might
need therapy," Lee laughed.
Now looking toward the future, Lee is currently working on a
massive top-secret franchise film for Warner Bros. and toying
with the idea of finding a new outlet for his artistic side: Voice
Over. In the meantime, he's also part of a creative group that plans
installations for the desert festival Burning Man. Beyond that, he
has a few more possible projects lined up and is hoping to work
on something meaningful again where he can invest a bit more of
that "emotional currency."
The Last Black Man in San Francisco was released by A24 last year
and is now available for rental via streaming platforms.
Daniel Lee/LMGI
Photo by Dyana Carmella
