The 24th Oakland International Film Festival - Sept 17 - Grand Lake 6:45 PM

Director: Amanda Williams

Runtime: 00:08:20

A doctor puts aside concerns about her own pregnancy as she works to care for a miscarrying patient.

Director: Chesi Ho

Runtime: 00:05:27

A mother’s desire to make sense of a well-intentioned school play date results in an unfortunate chain reaction. Play Date was inspired by a true event at a local elementary school and briefly touches upon complex societal topics such as the nuances of the minority experience, internalized racism, the desire for community/safe spaces and the effect of anonymity on the Internet.

Director: Tamar Springer

Runtime: 00:39:51

Everyone knows the song “Santa Baby,” but what they might not know is that its composer, Philip Springer’s contribution to the worldwide musical landscape is vast. Join his daughter Tamar to celebrate this unique artist from his early hits on Tin Pan Alley to a globe-spanning viral video in his 90s. More Than Santa Baby transports viewers through a unique period in 20th century music history, a powerful, multi-layered story of perseverance, resilience and hope.

Director: Josh Egel

Runtime: 00:13:36

Rooted in Joy is a 13-minute documentary origin story about Black Vines® — Toast to Black Wineries and Diverse Art — a USA Today’s top 4 wine festival - 6 consecutive years and the country’s longest-standing Black wine festival, founded in Oakland, California in 2011 by Fern A. Stroud. The daughter of two educators, Fern grew up riding alongside her father through the wine country of Napa Valley — a memory that planted something she wouldn’t fully understand for decades. In rare, newly licensed footage from Dr. Maya Angelou’s PBS series Black, Blues, Black! her father Welvin Stroud speaks about education — witnessed by one of the most celebrated voices in Black American history. Told through intimate interviews with the winery partners who found their first real platform in Black Vines, the team who showed up year after year to make it happen, and the founder who walked away from a 17-year Tech career to build something the culture desperately needed, Rooted in Joy is a story about inheritance — what parents pass to children without knowing it, what communities build together when they are finally given a room of their own, and what joy looks like when it becomes someone’s life’s work. Joy isn’t just something you create. Sometimes it’s something you were always called to protect.

Disclaimer: Schedule subject to change