Group 6 - Blog Post #5

Blog Post #5 (Group 6) - Ellie, Sam, Gefei and Michael - 5/10
Author: Ellie, Sam, Gefei, Michael

    After broadening our research inquiries to the Castro district as a whole, we found a wide array of sources reflecting on the Castro’s unique location, as a kind of “utopia.” Idil Basural, in their comprehensive and peer-reviewed piece on the Castro, compares the district to a “contemporary utopia.” Based on its complex and detailed history with the LGBTQ community and immigrants—specifically of Irish descent—the Castro district has gradually become a safe haven, or as Basaural says, a “secure space” for marginalized communities. We also managed to find a primary document—a flier for the theatre from the publication source Dykespeak. It features a blown-up picture of Judy Garland, a large icon and idol in the LGBTQ community. The theatre became a space where people could go to truly be themselves and Garland was an emblem of this desire. She was someone who struggled within the demanding film industry, being consistently told that she wasn’t pretty enough to succeed. She attempted to take her life and exhibited true grief in her roles—multiple aspects which struck a chord with her audience who similarly felt as though they didn’t belong (Dyer). This precedent of the Castro serving as a safe space for the LGTBQ community made it a perfect place for the screening of Asian films which weren’t screened in many other locations. Erin Garcia, in a journal article we found in the BAMPFA archives reflected on this unique location as well, saying, 

“The Bay Area is a place that is deeply invested in neighborhoods and in the notion of community. This is evident in the way natives--the gay and lesbian communities, the homeless community, the preservation community, the arts community, and so on--view and think of themselves. Identifying with a group, or several, is important in a region this large, as well as this ethnically, economically, and socially diverse.”

    Taking this environment into consideration, as well as the fact that there were notable gaps in the screening of Chinese language films at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, we wanted to see if there were additional festivals playing within the Castro district—and even the Castro Theater—that were filling up these gaps of absence. In our search, we found that numerous film festivals have utilized not only the Castro but also the Castro theater,  as their primary screening location. This includes the San Francisco Film Festival, the Arab Film Festival, as well as the Jewish Film Festival. Looking specifically at the San Francisco Film Festival, we found that the instances in which Chinese language films were screened from festival to festival, were much greater than what we had found for the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. For instance, this past month during the festival’s run, they screened Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Originally released twenty-two years ago, this film was internationally recognized and went on to win four Oscars. One of our group members, Michael, was able to attend the screening in person. Seeing a film festival that not only screened a Chinese language film, but one so significant and from so long ago, was really exciting to all of our group members. Despite our disappointment in the SFSFF’s lack of representation, we were encouraged to see that the Castro Theater hosted other film festivals that screened films that are significant to Chinese American and Asian American community members of the neighborhood.

    This year, the Castro Theatre announced its ongoing transformation into a live music venue. The theatre is partnering with Another Planet Entertainment, a Berkeley-based concert production company behind Outside Lands, a music festival. The transformation is set to finish in 2023 before reopening to the public. However, this transformation received mixed responses from the public. To many cinephiles, the Castro was one of the best movie theaters in the country, and they’re heartbroken to see it turn into one of the dozens of multi-purpose concert venues in the Bay Area.     Moving forward, we have an appointment scheduled with Gisèle Tanasse, which was a suggested next step by Linda. Her soonest availability is on Tuesday, which unfortunately is a day past the due date for this assignment. However, we’ve been really invested and interested in researching this topic, so we’re hoping that our conversation with her will be really helpful regardless—especially since we still have questions remaining. For example, we are still curious if there’s a reason that there are such large gaps between each Chinese language silent film that was shown at the SFSFF. We wonder about how Asian communities felt and still feel about the Castro district–was it welcoming? That is what our group found most rewarding and significant about this project; no matter how much you research and how many roadblocks appear, there’s always more to investigate and more questions to ask. 

Bibliography

Bartlett, Amanda. “SF’s Film Community Troubled by Castro Theatre Pivot: ‘Shocking.’” 

SFGATE, Jan. 2022. 

Dyer, Richard. “Judy Garland and Gay Men.” Heavenly Bodies, Routledge, London and New 

York, pp. 137–191. 

Garcia, Erin. “A Sense of Community.” Afterimage, vol. 33, no. 3, Nov. 2005, pp. 45–46. 

BAMPFA Film Library - Storage TR640 .A2

“The Castro Theatre”, Dykspeak, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Historical Society, 

Oct. 1994. GALE|PNQCBD521883667.