About

Newly restored after decades out of circulation, David Schickele's remarkable docufiction is a unique chronicle of the racial and political tumult of the 1960s counterculture. Schickele's friend Paul Eyam Nzie Opokam plays Gabriel, a young Nigerian who—like Opokam himself—arrives on the west coast to attend San Francisco State College at the height of the student movement. The film's close proximity to the truth of Opokam's life instils its portrait of the American immigrant experience with a tactile immediacy, even before real events conspire to derail its fictional narrative entirely. Where other filmmakers might seek to paper over such an intervention, Schickele lets this harsh reality slice through the quiet rhythms of his character study like a knife, underscoring not just the power but the fragility of Opokam's generous central performance.

Bushman will screen from a new 4K digital restoration.

Ages 15+