Indie film and festival darling East Side Sushi, written and directed by SF State film program grad Anthony Lucero, is a story about Juana (Diana Elizabeth Torres), who gives up running her dad's Oakland fruit cart and wants to learn how to become a sushi chef much to the chagrin of her employers at an Oakland sushi restaurant, where she starts as a dishwasher and "cook's assistant." As Inside Scoop notes, the movie was shot at the former B-Dama on Piedmont Avenue, and features plenty of Oaklandish scenes, including a sunset over Lake Merritt.
The film opens tomorrow, September 18, at the Sundance Kabuki, and also at the East Bay's Elmwood and Grand Lake cinemas.