Blindspotting / Bhaji on the Beach

At the Billy Wilder Theater

Blindspotting

U.S., 2018

Oakland set and shot, director Carlos López Estrada’s Blindspotting, scripted by its two magnetic stars Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, brims with a fierce hometown pride. That spirit, and his best friend Miles (Casal), sustains one-time offender Collin (Diggs) as he anxiously counts down the final three days of his parole. No race against the clock, getting through is the game here until Collin witnesses a police shooting while out after curfew and he’s haunted by his decision not to get involved. As Collin runs out his time beholden to the system, Estrada renders a powerful portrait of the networks of systemic injustice — police violence, gentrification, economic inequality — without a seeming expiration date. 

35mm, color, 95 min. Director: Carlos López Estrada. Screenwriter: Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs. With: Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar.

Bhaji on the Beach

U.K., 1993

As a group of British women of Indian descent board a bus bound for the beach resort of Blackpool, their guide cheerfully declares their day trip a vacation from the “double yokes of racism and sexism.” A wife and mother separating from her violent husband, a med school-bound student who just learned she’s pregnant, an older “auntie” anxious about spending her remaining years alone, they and the others could indeed all use the break. But of course the patriarchy comes calling regardless in co-writer-director Gurinder Chadha’s groundbreaking debut feature, by turns delightful and earnest as tradition and identity clash on the boardwalk over a single day. 

16mm, color, in English and Punjabi with English subtitles, 101 min. Director: Gurinder Chadha. Screenwriter: Gurinder Chadha, Meera Syal. With: 

Kim Vithana, Jimmi Harkishin, Sarita Khajuria.