Gold Medal in the category « Documentary »

Fruit markets, discount stores, and taquerias; open-air drug markets, the unhoused, and police; barber shops, low-riders, and loud music; queer, artistic, and politically outspoken; tech money, the working poor, and refugees — all in the mix in San Francisco’s Mission District.

Karl burns off before it gets here; the Mission lies low, inland, under our overpowering golden star.

Being here makes me trace my own story of immigration and cultural duality and wonder: Does a place make a person, or does a person make a place? If we are simply all here, does that count as belonging? And in the end, is belonging a decision we make, or permission we receive?