The Mission District’s untold stories

(L-R) Producer Lou Dematteis, Production Designer Rene Yanez and Producer/Director Dante Betteo during a Q&A session after the 2 p.m. screening of The Other Barrio on at Brava Theater, Sunday, Feb. 8. (Photo by Nathaniel Y. Downes)
(L-R) Producer Lou Dematteis, Production Designer Rene Yanez and Producer/Director Dante Betteo during a Q&A session after the 2 p.m. screening of The Other Barrio on at Brava Theater, Sunday, Feb. 8. (Photo by Nathaniel Y. Downes)
(L-R) Producer Lou Dematteis, Production Designer Rene Yanez and Producer/Director Dante Betteo during a Q&A session after the 2 p.m. screening of The Other Barrio on at Brava Theater, Sunday, Feb. 8. (Photo by Nathaniel Y. Downes)

By Patrick Cochran 
the guardsman

In his directorial debut, Dante Betteo tells the story of the Mission neighborhood and the gentrification underway there, weaving together a tale that feels a lot like a film noir with all the twists and turns you’d expected from that classic genre.

The story that the “Other Barrio” seeks to tell is relevant and in an eerie way seems ripped right from the headlines. It seems every week there is a new controversy over condos, the Google bus or the myriad of other issues related to gentrification of the Mission.

The film centers around protagonist Bob Morales, a building inspector in San Francisco who finds himself investigating a fire of an old hotel in the Mission that killed eight people. Quickly he finds himself entangled in a deadly web of developers, corrupt politicians and dirty police officers, but he refuses to give up until he gets justice for his fellow residents of the neighborhood he loves.

Just a  week before the film’s debut at the Mission’s Brava Theatre as part of the San Francisco film festival, an apartment building on Mission and 22nd streets caught fire. One person died, six were injured and dozens of people were left homeless by the fire. Many of them were long-time residents of the Mission, working class Latinos who had lived in the building for generations.

Members of the audience ask questions after the film. at Brava Theater, Sunday, Feb. 8. (Photo by Nathaniel Y. Downes)
Members of the audience ask questions after the film. at Brava Theater, Sunday, Feb. 8. (Photo by Nathaniel Y. Downes)

Days after the fire it was announced that developers were already trying to buy the burned-down building and turn it into multi-million dollar condos. It was the plot of a noir film playing out in newspaper headlines.

The director/writer Dante Betteo mentioned after the film that the similarity between the film’s plot and the recent fire was obviously a coincidence, but a strange one nonetheless. The inspiration for the film instead came from a short story about the 1975 Garden Apartment fire written abby noted Mission poet Alejandro Murguia, who plays himself in an important role in the film.

Betteo said numerous influences on his movie, not just from film noir but many other genres of movies.

“The movie Chinatown, a noir classic from the 1940s heavily influenced the movie,” said Betteo “I wanted the look of Blade Runner, gritty. We didn’t have much time, so like the old noir films we had to shoot on location. It was shot in documentary style”

Even Betteo’s kids helped film the movie.

“They grew up around movies and film, and went to school in Los Angeles and New York for it. When they graduated they said ‘Dad when are we going to get to film with you?’” Betteo said.

Actor Richard Montoya did an excellent job of portraying Bob Morales in the film. Throughout the movie Montoya is driven by a grim sense of determination to get justice for his fellow residents of the Mission.  Montoya also does a great job of executing his character’s biting and sarcastic sense of humor that often targets the lead instigators of the Mission’s gentrification — hipsters and tech workers. A scene on the Mexican Bus (semi-famous party bus in the Mission) with a group of young hipsters is one of the funniest scenes of the movie, with Morales cutting jokes and wry social commentary that make you stop and think.

That is the best part of the film. It is entertaining and tells an engaging story, but at the same time it is educational and informative. San Francisco is going through a tumultuous period. Thousands of residents being displaced by development while at the same time billions of dollars pour in.

The “Other Barrio” tells the story of gentrification on the big screen, with a little extra dose of drama and intrigue to spice things up. If you go see the “Other Barrio, you might just learn a thing or two about San Francisco.