FANTASTIC NEGRITO: HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND YET?

Name: FANTASTIC NEGRITO: HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND YET?
Start: 2022-10-06
End: 2022-10-16
Location: BAMPFA

World Premiere

TRAILBLAZERS | DOCS

US 2022, 93 min, Director: Yvan Iturriaga, Francisco Núñez Capriles

This locally made doc packs a lot of life into 90 minutes — specifically, the super-sized life of Xavier Dephrepaulezz, better known as Grammy-winning Oakland bluesman Fantastic Negrito, and his journey from early isolation as a Black Muslim kid in rural Massachusetts to Bay Area star with a global fanbase. Along the way, the story of a singular musician unfolds and we meet a misfit, maverick, drug dealer, punk innovator, urban farmer, and vulnerable bandleader. With powerful musical artistry and his own wry charm, Fantastic Negrito dishes on his relationship with his emotionally brutal father; being a “recovering narcissist;” the perils of the music industry; and the painful art of self-reinvention. A pivotal event in his thirties led to a rebirth of sorts and allowed him to embrace his own identity in an unexpected way — which led to the glorious present-day iteration of the “undeniable energy” that continues to drive him. —Celia C. Peters

Guests expected: director-producers Yvan Iturriaga and Francisco Núñez Capriles

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THANK YOU TO OUR COMMUNITY PARTNER SFFILM

Showtimes

Director

Francisco Núñez Capriles is a Chilean filmmaker who has been based in the Bay Area since 2016. He made his feature debut in 2021 with UNDERGROUND RUMBLINGS. He also writes, teaches, and works as a producer, director, editor, and sound recordist on commercial video projects. A native of Chile, Yvan Iturriaga, a writer, director, and producer, is based in Oakland. Among his films are PEDRO E. GUERRERO: A PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNEY (2015) and A PESCADOR IN THE TOWN (2020). He has also directed two Oakland-set TV series, THE NORTH POLE (2017-2019) and NORMAL AIN’T NORMAL (2022).