Cozy Cinema: Movie Night
7th West
Oakland
Feb. 8, 2024
A movie night in Oakland with films by auteurs inspired by filmmakers I love — Godard, Varda, Ozu, Tarkovsky—and Filipino snacks? That’s my idea of heaven.
A bar and restaurant known for hosting all manner of parties, karaoke nights, and raucous community events might not seem like the ideal venue for a quiet movie night. But that was the kind of homey vibe that Kevin Pelgone, a co-owner of 7th West bar and the curator of its “Cozy Cinema” series, wanted to capture. And the bill this past Thursday night — ”In the Mood for Love” by Wong Kar-Wai, followed by “Moonlight” by Barry Jenkins — seemed tailor-made for movie nerds like me. The fact that the space also serves Filipino snack foods like lumpia, along with calamansi-flavored beer, cemented my decision to venture into West Oakland to check it out, if only to meet the genius who thought of pairing some of my favorite things together.
Lumpia brings me back to my mom’s kitchen as a child, dipping meaty, crispy spring rolls into a traditional sauce of vinegar and garlic. (The ones at 7th West come with the more mainstream sweet-and-sour sauce.) And in the dusty heat of the Philippines, chilled glasses of calamansi juice are as ubiquitous as lemonade, flavored by the petite, citrus‑y orbs of the tropical fruit, inviting you to relax a little bit more, and to try living on island time.
Pelgone, who was born in the Philippines and grew up near New York, also happens to share my love of films and filmmaking. It was like discovering a cousin I didn’t know I had. (This actually happens to me a lot; my father was one of 12 kids, and my mother one of five.)
While “In the Mood for Love” played on the screen in the bar, we talked about the directors we love and the stories we want to tell, inspired by filmmakers like Wong Kar Wai and Jenkins, who were in turn inspired by filmmakers we love from the French New Wave, the Asian New Wave, and others. Since I’ve seen both movies many times over, I was happy to nerd out and talk about our shared obsessions.
Barry Jenkins has a Bay Area connection. Years ago, he chucked his San Francisco tech job to go to film school. His first film, “Medicine for Melancholy,” is a gorgeous love letter to the city, filmed in black-and-white, paying homage to filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard but refracted with themes of modern Black identity in a gentrifying city. “Moonlight,” of course, was the sumptuous full flowering of his skills, a beautiful story of star-crossed love that deserved the Best Picture Oscar it won, even if it came after the infamously flubbed announcement at the 2017 ceremony. And you can trace a direct line to Jenkins’ love of Wong Kar Wai films in the film. They’re both masters of layering music, color, and indelibly vibrant images on top of the kind of beautiful heartache that bleeds with life. And they always find actors who hit the perfect notes, whether it’s Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung or Andre Holland and Mahershala Ali.
Since it was only the second week of programming “Cozy Cinema,” Pelgone and I batted around our dream lists of movie themes for upcoming editions. Last week, he showed Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle.” He also invited people to come in their pajamas for free treats and hot cocoa. He said he wanted to do a movie night similar to how he likes to watch movies at home. “I wanted to turn the idea of a movie night in a bar on its head, and show that it can be quiet and thoughtful instead of loud and noisy,” he said.
Though the pandemic had seen a lot of Pelgone’s fellow business owners in the area close down and move away, he was hopeful that the positive response to “Cozy Cinema” would keep the bar surviving and thriving. I was hopeful, too. Despite the cold night and recent rains, I was pleasantly surprised by the good-sized crowd that came to watch the evening’s films … some dressed in pajamas. I walked to the BART station chilled by the night air, but warmed by the beauty of the movies I love, in an atmosphere that welcomes people like me.
