The Mission District-based film, “The Other Barrio,” is ready for public showing if selected for the upcoming San Francisco International Film Festival.

The film, adapted from San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia’s short story of the same name, is the first feature length film by award-winning documentary filmmakers Dante Betteo and Louis Dematteis.

Betteo and Dematteis will be notified by the end of March if festival organizers selected the film for showing during the festival scheduled April 25-May 9.

The film is a 92-minute tale of greed, murder, corruption and justice—taking place in the very heart of the Mission District.

“Even though it’s fiction, it portrays the problems of the Mission today,” Dematteis said, referring to issues such as gentrification and the displacement of low-income communities.

Betteo co-wrote the script alongside Richard Montoya—co-founder of the comic performance group “Culture Clash” and, the film’s protagonist.

When Betteo read “The Other Barrio,” which is featured in the book “San Francisco Noir,” edited by Peter Maravelis, he told Dematteis he wanted to make it into a movie.

Betteo adapted the tale to a contemporary setting and Montoya then added original material to the screenplay.

“Murguia’s story spoke to an issue that is growing in the Mission and is still very contemporary,” Betteo said.

“Dante [Betteo] wrote the script for a short movie but then we decided to make it into a feature so I contributed to the writing trying to stay true to Murguia’s original story,” Montoya said.

Montoya’s writing dealt with the effects of evictions, gentrification and real estate speculation on the residents of the Mission.

The independent film was shot primarily in the Mission District. A few scenes were shot in other parts of San Francisco and on the San Mateo County coast.

Dematteis said the cost to produce “The Other Barrio” will be under $200,000.

To finance it, a fundraising event was held in December 2012, as well as an Indiegogo campaign during the same period.

The fundraising campaigns raised about $11,000, according to Dematteis. Additional funds came from Betteo, Dematteis, and a few investors.

But, Dematteis said they are still raising the money to cover the outstanding costs.

“People from the Mission are going to feel close to it and identified with the story,” Betteo said.

The film narrates the story of Roberto Morales (Montoya), a San Francisco Housing investigator, looking into a fatal fire at a Mission District residential hotel. His investigation drags him into a web of bribery, murder and corruption involving powerful real estate interests and City Hall.

“Fires have been historically used as a way to relocate people, as a means of gentrification,” Dematteis said. “Today is different—evictions are used.”

In the film, Morales was raised in the Mission and, as time goes by, he witnesses the neighborhood changing before his eyes—losing its old flavor and character.

Montoya said the film is an opportunity to address the problem and help the victims of gentrification.

“I was there before the dot-coms and the rent raises and it was so beautiful. It was a place for artists, a place to be inspired and it’s sad to see that all that is gone,” he said.

The film shows the City’s diversity by taking viewers deep into neighborhoods and communities rarely seen on film.

The film is not afraid to point a finger at developers and real estate agents who Dematteis called “speculators.”

There is also a bit of a love story element in the film involving the mysterious and seductive Sofia Nido, played by actress Veronica Valencia. Her character is that of a femme fatale whose hidden interests will collide with those of Morales.

Fotograma de The Other Barrio. Film still from “The Other Barrio.”

The film was shot in two segments — the first in July 2012 and the second in June and July 2013.

Murguia’s story was inspired by the Gartland Hotel fire of 1975, when a landlady was suspected, but never indicted, of torching her own property in order to get rid of the tenants.

Murguia, with his short story, wanted to raise the issue of arsons and displacement unique to the Mission District and underline the importance of maintaining the Latino culture and sensibility of the neighborhood.

“I would like people to react. I hope that the movie will make people think and take some kind of action to resolve the problem,” Betteo said.

The rest of the cast includes veteran actors Geoff Hoyle, Pearl Wong, Philip Kan Gotanda, James Hiser, Donald Lacey, Sean San Jose and Brian J. Patterson as well as up and coming actors Vincent Calvarese, Melinna Bobadilla, Paris Paul Hunter, Christopher White and Maggie Mason. Alejandro Murguia has a cameo in the film as well.

The production designer is renowned artist and creative director Rene Yanez, co-founder of the Galeria de La Raza, and the music supervisor/sound designer is award-winning music/video producer, educator and music historian Greg Landau. The musical score includes performances by Latin jazz great Jerry Gonsalez and longtime San Francisco musician and bandleader Jose Cuellar aka Dr. Loco.
Betteo, the director and co-producer, won an Emmy Award for Best Youth Oriented Programming in 2006 and has been nominated numerous times for Best Newscast and Best Documentary.

Dematteis, the co-producer, is an award winning photojournalist and documentary director.

The two started collaborating in 2007 on the documentary directed by Dematteis entitled “Crimebuster,” a film about an Italian-American photojournalist’s journey in search of his father’s life.

Betteo and Dematteis founded the production company SF Noir Films and started shooting in July 2012.
So, for a sneak peak at “The Other Barrio,” go to Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/70271679 and then get ready for its eventual public showing.