Bushman

It is a vividly beautiful and dynamic monochrome work resembling something by Godard or Cassavetes but with something special and specific; an amazing real-time transcription of the life of a young black man in San Francisco in the fraught year of 1968.

The dramatic stakes of cultural and ethnic stressors become especially relevant once Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam is arrested during the making of the film on a phony charge involving the possession of an explosive device.

The jarring switch to documentary gives “Bushman” its added charge.

Bursting with passion, sly humor, satirical swipes and the inescapable heartbeat of insurgency — most of the film was shot in 1968 San Francisco — it’s the life-loving tale of a wise innocent abroad, and the not exactly warm reception he receives.

It’ll make you challenge your openness to understanding the different cultural experiences that exist all around you and the injustices in the world that face many. Go into it with an open mind, but more importantly, with a curious heart.

This is a truly special time capsule awash and still pertinent in aspects that society needs to improve after almost 50 years [since] it was shot. It's entertaining, fascinating, and leads to a melancholy real-life twist... [Full review in Spanish]

It captures a vanishing San Francisco scene from its "love power" days.

Completed in 1971 but never released theatrically until now, it’s a haunting portrait of a place that was already gone by the time the film was finished.

It ultimately had the effect of only heightening the complexity of the film’s questioning political and social engagement, blurring lines between drama, nonfiction, essay and protest...

an eye-opening work about race, justice and democracy in America while also offering a profound contrast between a native black culture and one uprooted and transplanted.