Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #46. Joe Talbot – Last Black Man in San Francisco

Published on November 21, 2018

Perhaps making the leap from former short filmmaker alumni (2017’s American Paradise) to debuting his directorial debut, Sundance are not the only ones to have kept close tabs on Joe Talbot. With major backers Plan B Entertainment and A24, Last Black Man in San Francisco was part of the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters Lab in 2016, and went into production in April of 2018 (with dp and Adam Newport-Berra) after a good three years in active development. Jimmie Fails is surrounded by Jonathan Majors, Danny Glover, Tichina Arnold, Rob Morgan, Mike Epps, Finn Wittrock and Thora Birch make up the cast. The Cinereach folks and San Francisco Film Society are also a backers. We look forward to meeting Jimmie Fails and this San Fran portrait.

Gist: Written by Talbot and Rob Richer, this is adapted from Jimmie Fails’ real life story — about a young African-American who dreams of buying back the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Now living in the city’s last, dwindling black neighborhood with his oddball best friend, Prentice, they search for belonging in the rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

Production Co./Producers: Joe Talbot, Khaliah Neal, Plan B Entertainment’s Dede Gardner, Christina Oh, Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt.

Prediction: NEXT section.

U.S. Distributor: A24 Films.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).