Documentary featuring Oakland's largest homeless encampment

It's been my home for a very long time. I have blood here, sweat and tears, friends, family. You want us to help you, you gotta help us. That's an excerpt from the documentary film Wood Street. Wood Street was home to one of the largest encampments in Oakland. As many as 300 people lived there before it was dismantled by Caltrans and city officials. The documentary tells the story of the people who lived there, how they organized their community and tried to stop their eviction from the site. The documentary has won several awards at film festivals now across the country. It will be screened here at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland this week. And joining us to talk about it is the filmmaker behind it, Karen Creighton, and one of the organizers and former residents of Wood Street, John Janosko. Thanks for coming in and talking to us about this. You're welcome. Thanks so much. Let's start with the beginning and how the project all began. Karen, you were a reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle. You covered Wood Street. At what point did you realize or think to yourself this story needs to be told a different way? Yeah, I was doing some podcast episodes for the Chronicle and it was a really great way to get initiated with the community and not have a camera in people's faces. But then at a certain point once I saw folks under the highway, you know, taking the state to court, hiring lawyers, I felt like there was more to the story than Daily News could cover. I really wanted to see, you know, the everyday of these folks. John, do you remember when you first met Karen? And what was your thoughts about her? Was there a little bit of reluctance to maybe share too much? Well, there was always a little reservation when a journalist came on and did interviews with us. But Karen, she became one of our friends and allies, and so we started learning to trust her and we were excited about the opportunity for what she was doing for us. Were you surprised that she wanted to tell your story? I really was. There was a lot of different journalists that came onto our property, to where we were living at that time, and no one really took any great interest in us, and Karen was one of those ones who did take some interest in us. The film is told entirely from the perspective of the Wood Street community and the people living there. You didn't interview anyone from the city, so none of the traditional journalism getting both sides of the story. But why did you feel it was important to tell the story that way? Yeah, I really felt like, you know, traditional news had covered the story in so many ways, and kind of given Wood Street folks, you know, you get short segments on news, so they didn't have a ton of time. And so it really felt like the city had the bigger megaphone in that case, and I really just kind of wanted to give Wood Street folks the chance to really raise their voices and share their side of the story. John, you lived at the Wood Street encampment for almost a decade. Yes. What was your experience like there? Hard sometimes, but also good. There's always good and there's always bad with everything, and I tried to focus in on the good, the positive, that was being created while we were there, and that's why the movie is such a positive thing, because it gives you sort of an insight on, like, our daily lives and what we did and the positive part of our existence out there. What were the positive things? It was the community. We had a lot of fun. We shared a lot of moments together. I made a lot of friends, made some real good connections. I have a friend right here next to me. You know, we're on this journey together and stuff that made it so much more positive. The Wood Street encampment is no more. Where are you now? I am in East Oakland. I got housed three years ago in a nice little one-bedroom apartment. Our organization, Wood Street Commons, is a nonprofit now, so we're out doing outreach and community engagement with a lot of the unhoused people right now. How did you end up becoming kind of the central character in this and the organizer there? How did that happen? I mean, John was a natural choice. If anybody follows him on Instagram, he posts, or at his peak, he posted maybe three videos a day, but he has, like, a great personality, and for me as a filmmaker, it was great to find someone who's posting Instagram videos so we can really add his perspective to the film. And some of those Instagram clips are kind of weaved into the documentary as well. This documentary has won four different awards on the documentary film circuit, including, I think, Best Film at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Have you had a chance to talk to people who've seen it? What did they tell you about what their impressions were? Yeah, so we've shown the film in a few different cities across the country, and the main connecting thread is that, you know, encampment sweeps are something that's happening in every city across the U.S., and there are a lot of advocates who've seen the film who are really moved, who are seeing the connections, and really want to find a way to handle this situation better and not traumatize people. What's your next project? I don't have another project yet. I'm still pretty heads down on this one, but I am looking for a journalism job in the Bay Area. Any more documentaries, you think? Oh, definitely, hopefully in the future. Okay. John, what about you? What's next for you? You're housed, and you started this nonprofit as a result of your activism. Where do you see yourself in five years? I'm going to continue on doing this work, but I'm also trying to build my catering back up, so I have a small catering business that I'm working on right now. Do you think any of this would have happened without the documentary? Some of it would. Some of it would. The exposure that we're getting now probably wouldn't have. It would have been a little bit slower than it is now, but it all goes hand-in-hand together, you know? We can't have one without the other. What's the number one thing you hope people who see this film walk away thinking about? Oh, I would say community. And I hope it just changes the narrative of what people think the people are in these encampments, you know? Change some minds, change some hearts. Where can people see the film? So, people can see the film Tuesday at the new Parkway at 6.30. It's mostly sold out, but there should be some tickets at the door. And Wednesday, 7.30 at Grand Lake Theatre. We still have tickets available. Thank you so much for coming in. Glad to hear that you're doing well. Your catering business is on its way and your non-profit group is doing well as well. Thank you for speaking about the documentary. Best of luck with the screening. Thank you. We'll send it over to you, Rosemary. Thank you so much.