CALENDAR
Oakland Ilokana | Ashes of The Monarca | Brewin' Stew | I Was Thinking of You — Oakland International Film Festival
Wednesday, September 16, 2026, 5:00 PM
M14-202 Music Building Littlefield Concert Hall, M14-Lobby Music Building
Presented by the Oakland International Film Festival
Sponsored by Mills Performing Arts & Northeastern University
Open to the Public
Tickets: $17.85 — Registration requested
Free with a Northeastern University ID (limited tickets available at the door)
Oakland Ilokana
Director: Elenita Makani O'Malley
Runtime: 00:20:00
Oakland Ilokana (2025) is a short documentary following a 90-year-old Filipina American grandmother — one of the first Filipino children born in 1930s Oakland — as she reflects on a life shaped by migration, displacement, and the women in her community. Seen through the lens of her granddaughter, the film brings four generations of Bay Area Filipinas into focus, exploring the enduring power of memory to connect people across place and time.
Ashes of The Monarca
Director: Erica Mendoza
Runtime: 00:18:00
An undocumented filmmaker returns to her rural hometown near Apatzingán, Michoacán, for the first time since childhood, traveling on a special permit and risking her safety and the possibility of being denied reentry to the United States. As she walks the streets of her youth, haunted by memories and the unresolved disappearance of her uncle, she confronts the shadows of family, loss, and the political violence that shaped her homeland. disappearance.
Brewing Stew – Calvin Keys – Life of Guitar
Director: Isaac Pingree
Runtime: 00:30:00
Now narrated from beyond the grave, this film lets Calvin Keys look back on his career and make sense and joy of it. A quiet giant of jazz guitar, Keys (1942–2024) played with artists ranging from Earl “Fatha” Hines and Ahmad Jamal to Terrace Martin, building a career that connected generations of jazz.Drawing from interviews recorded shortly before his unexpected death, along with reflections from collaborators like Henry Franklin and Taj Mahal, the film unfolds as a conversation across time. Keys speaks about the people and places in time that shaped him, the music he created, and the collaborations that defined his path. As Calvin looks back on his life in music, the film suggests how influence, mentorship, and and collaboration carry forward, even after someone is gone. In a culture driven by immediacy and visibility, this film reflects on what and who we choose to remember, and the treasure found when we trace the fading paths left by those who came before us.
I Was Thinking of You
Director: Devendra Rathod
Runtime: 01:04:39
A son retraces his parents’ unlikely story between post-independence India and mid-century America to uncover how their divided worlds became thesource of his own belonging.
More information: https://oaklandfilmfestival.org/