Charlie Walker, a San Francisco business owner and social justice icon who was portrayed by Mike Colter in the 2022 biopic I’m Charlie Walker, died Thursday in his hometown, it was announced. He was 89.
Colter, perhaps best known for his turns as Marvel hero Luke Cage, starred alongside Safiya Fredericks and Dylan Baker in the June release from Famm Films and Shout! Studios that was directed by Patrick Gilles.
The son of sharecropper parents, Walker became a successful trucker and in the 1960s led protests to open public construction jobs to Black contractors who were being deliberately snubbed.
He hired trucks that cleaned up San Francisco Bay after a devastating 1971 oil spill, helped good friend and then-Assembly member Willie Brown safely exit City Hall after the 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk and became one of the first Black employees at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Last year,...
Colter, perhaps best known for his turns as Marvel hero Luke Cage, starred alongside Safiya Fredericks and Dylan Baker in the June release from Famm Films and Shout! Studios that was directed by Patrick Gilles.
The son of sharecropper parents, Walker became a successful trucker and in the 1960s led protests to open public construction jobs to Black contractors who were being deliberately snubbed.
He hired trucks that cleaned up San Francisco Bay after a devastating 1971 oil spill, helped good friend and then-Assembly member Willie Brown safely exit City Hall after the 1978 assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk and became one of the first Black employees at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Last year,...
- 2/1/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 1971 San Francisco oil spill that dumped more than 800,000 gallons of crude off its coast was an environmental disaster. But for a shrewd Black trucking entrepreneur named Charlie Walker, it was a golden opportunity to puncture the racism in his industry and to make some serious cash from a rich, embattled oil company. For as long as the system let him, of course.
In telling the story of Walker’s crafty exploits saving a beach and fighting discrimination, the independently made “I’m Charlie Walker” from writer-director Patrick Gilles is its own amorphous discharge, if not so slick.
It boasts a commanding, old-school star-wattage turn from Mike Colter (“Luke Cage”) as the hustling, tussling Walker, but its mix of sidelined Black history and fight-the-power narrative is too messy to have the impact it should, especially after the handful of memorable black-themed Bay Area stories we’ve gotten of late.
Also...
In telling the story of Walker’s crafty exploits saving a beach and fighting discrimination, the independently made “I’m Charlie Walker” from writer-director Patrick Gilles is its own amorphous discharge, if not so slick.
It boasts a commanding, old-school star-wattage turn from Mike Colter (“Luke Cage”) as the hustling, tussling Walker, but its mix of sidelined Black history and fight-the-power narrative is too messy to have the impact it should, especially after the handful of memorable black-themed Bay Area stories we’ve gotten of late.
Also...
- 6/9/2022
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
"Get that damn oil off the beach." Shout Factory has revealed an official trailer for an indie drama titled I'm Charlie Walker, based on a true story. This hasn't hit any festivals yet, and will be playing this summer to watch. The film tells true story of how one desperate man, armed with only his charm and wits, takes on a racist San Francisco corporation in 1971. Mike Colter stars as Charlie Walker, who runs a small construction and trucking business. When two oil tankers collide off of the coast, unleashing millions of gallons of oil and spawning an immense environmental disaster, he tries his best to help clean up the coastline. The film also stars Dylan Baker, Safiya Fredericks, Mark Leslie Ford, Monica Barbaro, Steven Wiig, Emma Caulfield Ford, and Carl Lumbly. This definitely looks like a low budget film, but they made the most of it anyway and let...
- 4/29/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: Shout! Studios has acquired North American rights to Famm Films’ topical drama I’m Charlie Walker, starring Mike Colter, following a competitive bidding situation. Shout! Factory’s multi-platform entertainment distribution and production arm plans to release the film across all major entertainment platforms, beginning with a theatrical day-and-date launch later this year.
The film based on a true story picks up in 1971, as two oil tankers violently collide off the San Francisco coast, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil and creating an environmental disaster. Against all odds, trucking and construction entrepreneur Charlie Walker (Colter) is then able to secure one of the most lucrative contracts to clean the coastline threatening much of the San Francisco Bay, with only three trucks, an incredible work ethic and a whole lot of heart. Pic recounts the racial discrimination Walker endured as he tries to save the coastline,...
The film based on a true story picks up in 1971, as two oil tankers violently collide off the San Francisco coast, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil and creating an environmental disaster. Against all odds, trucking and construction entrepreneur Charlie Walker (Colter) is then able to secure one of the most lucrative contracts to clean the coastline threatening much of the San Francisco Bay, with only three trucks, an incredible work ethic and a whole lot of heart. Pic recounts the racial discrimination Walker endured as he tries to save the coastline,...
- 2/10/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Domestic violence and black comedy don’t seem a natural match, but to an impressive degree “Bitter Melon” pulls off their shotgun marriage. This third and best directorial feature to date for H.P. Mendoza, best known for writing, composing and starring in 2006’s “Colma: The Musical” (which Richard Wong directed), revolves around an eventful long Christmas weekend for members of a Filipino-American family with a history of abusive fathers. The complex tonal, textural and thematic mix here doesn’t always work, but it’s always interesting and often invigorating.
Christmas in San Francisco may not require winter wear, but there’s a certain amount of frost in the air as the Santos clan convenes for a rare (and nearly full) family reunion. Gay youngest son Declan (Jon Norman Schneider) has flown in from Manhattan, with eldest Moe (Brian Rivera) from Philadelphia, both returning for for the first time in years.
Christmas in San Francisco may not require winter wear, but there’s a certain amount of frost in the air as the Santos clan convenes for a rare (and nearly full) family reunion. Gay youngest son Declan (Jon Norman Schneider) has flown in from Manhattan, with eldest Moe (Brian Rivera) from Philadelphia, both returning for for the first time in years.
- 5/18/2018
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
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