Lucas Guilkey | Journalism

Homelessness emergency: This multimedia investigation dives deep into Oakland, California's homelessness crisis and the clashing responses from activists and city officials, providing an evergreen template for understanding one of the most central social issues of our time. (Producer/Reporter, Oakland North, 2017)

2016 documentary and video journalism reel

Videos

Four black trans women have been murdered in Florida this year. The LGBTQ community is demanding answers. (Producer/Editor, AJ+, 2018)

This farm in Hawaii is helping native students attend college by paying their tuition and teaching them ancestral farming practices. (Editor, AJ+, 2018)

Some California families' rents are doubling overnight. This mini-doc explores the escalating tension between landlord and tenant groups and provides an evergreen explainer of the state law that constrains California cities from passing stronger rent control: Costa-Hawkins. (Oakland North, 2018)

People who are incarcerated and on parole in California can't vote. Meet Taina and Richard, a couple maintaining a relationship across prison walls, seeking to change that. (Oakland North, 2018)

John Jones III is a formerly incarcerated Oakland-native dedicating his life to organizing his community and fighting systemic oppression. (Fusion, 2016)

Omar Ramirez coaches soccer for immigrant and refugee youth in the Bay Area. Now he is in danger of loosing his DACA status. (Splinter, 2017)

Black liberation activists have launched an annual weekend of direct action to "reclaim Martin Luther King Jr.'s radical legacy." (AJ+, 2015, with Julia Muldavin)

The Oakland Athletics promised a new waterfront ballpark near the city center, but the community college across the street came out in strong opposition. (Oakland North, 2017)

As 90% of Puerto Rico remained without power after Hurrican Maria, Oaklanders came together to rally and organize supplies for their homeland. (Oakland North, 2017)

Follow the Money: Kimberly Reed Tracks the Fallout from 'Citizens United' in the State of Montana

Documentary Magazine | July 10, 2018

When the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision opened the floodgates to money in political campaigns, New Jersey-based director Kimberly Reed felt frustrated but didn’t know what to do. Two years later, it turned out, an old high school classmate of hers from Montana—Steve Bullock, then the state’s attorney general—was preparing to come to Washington, DC, to wage the only state challenge to the decision before the Supreme Court.

FEATURE: Advocates push Oakland officials to treat homelessness as an emergency

Oakland North | December 14, 2017

On a mid-November morning, under a drizzly, overcast sky, a woman named Velly stands outside her tent, petting her small black kitten and watching city workers toss left-behind trash into massive garbage trucks. Police cars surround the perimeter of what was, just hours ago, a homeless encampment. Officers stand around, observing the situation. Residents of the camp, visibly exhausted, methodically pack up all of their belongings and wheel, carry and push them across the road—trying to figure where they will be moving to next.

Oakland police chief faces council over details of August immigration raid

Oakland North | November 29, 2017

Questions regarding Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick’s truthfulness about police cooperation in an immigration home raid in West Oakland this summer were on the minds of many in the chambers at Tuesday’s city council meeting, but those would have to wait nearly four hours and more than 30 agenda items until the issue was finally heard.

City workers strike, others rally outside Mayor Schaaf’s State of the City address

Oakland North | December 8, 2017

On Thursday afternoon, librarians at Oakland’s downtown branch chained up the front doors early to honor the beginning of a six-hour citywide strike by Oakland city workers—timed to coincide with Mayor Libby Schaaf’s annual State of the City address.

FEATURE: Nearly one third of Glenn Dyer prisoners wrap up hunger strike

Oakland North | October 27, 2017

Last week, 125 prisoners at the Glenn Dyer Detention Facility in downtown Oakland—over 30 percent of the prisoners housed there—participated in a five-day hunger strike to protest what they say are abusive conditions of isolation and poor healthcare in Alameda County jails.

Protestors rally in Oakland to demand aid for Puerto Rico

Oakland North | October 5, 2017

On Thursday evening, Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, a local filmmaker and member of the collective Defend Puerto Rico, will travel with 300 pounds of emergency aid—“solar generators, rechargeable chainsaws, women’s hygiene products, dry fruit, whatever we can get”—to the island of Puerto Rico, where, according to the local government, over 90 percent of people remain without electricity and, according to the US Department of Defense, 55 percent, or 1.87 million people, remain without access to drinking water after Hurricane Maria shattered the island’s infrastructure on September 20.

Renewable energy, cannabis industries lead the charge for an Oakland public bank

Oakland North | September 26, 2017

On Monday night at Oakland City Hall, civic leaders and advocates hosted a teach-in on Germany’s renewable energy revolution, which has largely been powered by municipally-owned public banks. They hope Oakland can help lead the way for the United States to do the same.

A history of redlining in Boyle Heights

A history of dissident Russians immigrating to the United States

A history of the California rent control law Costa-Hawkins

Handwritten graphics for Cipher, a documentary featuring Oakland turf dance crew Team Heat

Lucas Guilkey | Documentary Filmmaker & Journalist