Two very good films, one set in Oakland and the other in San Francisco. Well worth watching, if you haven't seen them.
East Side Sushi -
"Juana is a single Mexican-American mother who lives with her young daughter and widowed father in East Oakland, California. She tries a string of jobs ranging from tending her father's fruit cart to working at Mexican taquerias, and she can slice and dice with speed and precision.
After getting robbed while tending the fruit cart, she applies for and is hired as a sous chef at the Japanese restaurant Osaka. She starts off as a kitchen helper, but as her interest in sushi grows, she starts to develop signature sushi dishes on her own time through much trial and error. She also eyes entering a contest called "Champions of Sushi," which offers a first prize of $20,000."
The Last Black Man in San Francisco -
"Jimmie Fails is a young man living in Bayview-Hunters Point, San Francisco. He spends his time wandering around town with his best friend Mont Allen, with whom he lives, along with Mont's grandfather. Jimmie waits for the bus with Mont every day, during which they see various states of change in the city and protesters trying to stop it. The two then skateboard to a Victorian house in the city's Fillmore District in which Jimmie grew up. Jimmie says it was built by his grandfather in 1946, opting to build on an empty lot rather than buy one of the houses made available due to the wartime internment of Japanese Americans."
Greg