美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Last Black Man In San Francisco' Is About Who Belongs In A Beloved City

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

"The Last Black Man In San Francisco" is a new film opening this weekend. It's inspired by the real-life story of Jimmie Fails. With the help of his best friend, Fails tries to reclaim¹ the Victorian-style house where his family once lived in the now-gentrified Fillmore District. He dreams of what it could once again be.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO")

JIMMIE FAILS: (As Jimmie Fails) We could throw parties. You could put on one of your plays. We can yell.

SHAPIRO: NPR's Mandalit del Barco went to San Francisco to meet up with the real Jimmie Fails and Joe Talbot, who directed and co-wrote the movie.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE²: On a windy San Francisco day, Jimmie Fails sits at a bench in Duboce Park with his best friend, Joe Talbot, and actor Jamal Trulove, who has a role in the movie.

FAILS: It's crazy, like, sticking out like a sore thumb at Duboce Park, like, being black; that shouldn't be a thing. You know, me and Jamal the only black people probably at this park right now.

JAMAL TRULOVE: Right.

DEL BARCO: This area, the Fillmore, was once known as the Harlem of the West - a lively African American neighborhood filled with jazz and blues³ clubs.

FAILS: It was blacker. You know, it used to be, like, a lot of - like, Spike⁴ Lee flick⁵ or something. It was like boomboxes and dice⁶ games. And it wasn't this (laughter).

DEL BARCO: Dog park.

FAILS: Dog...

TRULOVE: Labradoodles.

FAILS: Yeah, labradoodles and avocado toast, you know?

DEL BARCO: Fails is just 24 years old, but he and his friends are nostalgic for the more diverse and more offbeat⁷ San Francisco they grew up in, before the city became virtually unaffordable, even for people like Trulove, who recently won a $13-million wrongful conviction settlement.

TRULOVE: I can't afford to live in San Francisco (laughter), even having the millions and, you know, stuff like that.

DEL BARCO: The gentrification also worries Joe Talbot, who's white. The fifth-generation San Franciscan grew up in Bernal Heights and met Fails at a city park when they were teens.

JOE TALBOT: We're working through a lot of what we feel about San Francisco. But part of that is that we still love this city. We still want to make it home. We just also recognize that it can feel, at times, nearly impossible. It's so damn expensive.

DEL BARCO: As a little boy, Fails lived here in the Fillmore with his family in a three-story Victorian. The house was foreclosed, and he bounced around, moving to the projects. For years, he dreamed of the Victorian of his childhood.

FAILS: The only place where my family was kind of all together and all lived as one. And the house, you know, when we lost it, it was like - we never really had that again.

DEL BARCO: The idea to make his story into their first big movie began years ago, during long conversations Fails had with his best friend, Talbot. Jimmie plays a fictionalized version of himself, painting and repairing the house he says his grandfather built, even while other people are living in it. After they leave, Jimmie moves in, and he even tries to buy it.

TALBOT: We wanted to sort of make it feel like this mini epic⁸ - this man trying to get back to home, trying to reclaim the kind of family throne.

FAILS: Trying to get the love of his life back.

DEL BARCO: The film is also about a gentle friendship between Jimmie and Montgomery, a quirky, creative soul played by Jonathan Majors. They both try to restore the house, and together, at times on the same skateboard, they navigate⁹ the hilly streets of San Francisco. They butt¹⁰ up against a smarmy¹¹ real estate agent and annoying hipsters. And they quietly bond with those who give the city its unique character, like a naked guy catching¹² the bus and a man singing on the street.

(SOUNDBITE OF DANIEL HERSKEDAL, EMILIE MOSSERI & JOE TALBOT'S "SAN FRANCISCO (BE SURE TO WEAR FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR)")

MICHAEL MARSHALL: (Singing) If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair.

DEL BARCO: The film opens in Hunters Point, where Jimmie stays with Montgomery and his grandfather, played by Danny Glover. Since the '40s, black San Franciscans have lived in this impoverished¹³, isolated¹⁴ neighborhood. The real-life Jimmie Fails once lived in a housing project here across from the abandoned Navy shipyards and a former nuclear test site. Two weeks ago, he and Talbot revisited Hunters Point and found a barbed wire fence obscuring the bay view in the film's opening shot. Posted there was a long-awaited notice about the toxic¹⁵ and contaminated area.

FAILS: Cleanup plan proposed (laughter) - 2019, huh?

DEL BARCO: The Hunters Point Naval¹⁶ Shipyard was added to EPA's Superfund list in 1989. Across the street is a sleek¹⁷, new condo and, at the end of the block, an entire new luxury development, advertised as, quote, "the reimagined shipyards," with townhomes listed at $1.3 million.

TALBOT: They were starting to do construction as we were filming. We begged them not to, for the film and also just for, you know, the morality of the city (laughter). You can document these places that we love, but in some ways, it sometimes feels like it's all you can do, is at least just try to commit them to memory.

DEL BARCO: "The Last Black Man In San Francisco" asks who belongs in the city by the bay. Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails say they're keeping their hearts in their hometown.

Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, San Francisco.

(SOUNDBITE OF DANIEL HERSKEDAL, EMILIE MOSSERI & JOE TALBOT'S "SAN FRANCISCO (BE SURE TO WEAR FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR)")

1 reclaim   

v.要求归还，收回；开垦

参考例句：

• I have tried to reclaim my money without success.我没能把钱取回来。
• You must present this ticket when you reclaim your luggage.当你要取回行李时，必须出示这张票子。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

4 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

5 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

6 dice   

n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险

参考例句：

• They were playing dice.他们在玩掷骰子游戏。
• A dice is a cube.骰子是立方体。

7 offbeat   

adj.不平常的，离奇的

参考例句：

• She adores old,offbeat antiques.她非常喜欢那些稀奇古怪的老古董。
• His style is offbeat but highly creative.他的风格很不寻常但非常有创造力。

8 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

9 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

10 butt   

n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶

参考例句：

• The water butt catches the overflow from this pipe.大水桶盛接管子里流出的东西。
• He was the butt of their jokes.他是他们的笑柄。

11 smarmy   

adj.爱说奉承话的

参考例句：

• I hate his smarmy compliments.我痛恨他拍马屁的恭维。
• Rick is slightly smarmy and eager to impress.里克有些好奉承，急着要给人留下好印象。

12 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

13 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

15 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

16 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

17 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。