SAN FRANCISCO — More than 400 San Franciscans packed the historic Great Star Theater in Chinatown Wednesday night for the premiere screening of “The City of Sensitive Frauds,” an independent documentary exploring the impacts of gentrification on San Francisco’s working-class neighborhoods.
The one-night-only event, co-hosted by former San Francisco Supervisor and housing advocate Dean Preston, drew a diverse, working-class crowd—distinctly absent of political insiders, tech elites, or city officials. Instead, it was community members from across the city who filled the seats, eager to confront what many describe as the city’s accelerating transformation into a “tech playground” at the expense of its cultural and economic diversity.
Directed by San Francisco-based journalist Mario Riveira and Bay Area social media influencer Abe Woodliff—best known for the Real Bay Area Memes platform—the documentary features an unfiltered look at how tech money, real estate interests, and so-called “moderate” politicians have reshaped San Francisco. The film prominently features Preston, who has long been a vocal critic of gentrification, displacement, and the influence of billionaires in local politics.
“This one’s for the Bay!” Riveira declared during the post-screening panel, as audience members cheered.
Alongside Preston, the documentary spotlights voices often left out of policy debates—unhoused residents, abolitionists, and local figures like Doggtown Dro and Gunna Goes Global—who offer raw, personal accounts of San Francisco’s shifting landscape. The film examines how the city, once a haven for nonconformists, artists, and working-class families, is increasingly becoming inaccessible to the very people who shaped its identity.
Throughout the screening, the audience responded with vocal enthusiasm—booing tech-funded political groups like GrowSF and YIMBY, and applauding scenes that took aim at real estate developers and self-described moderate politicians. The crowd’s reactions reflected growing frustration with the city’s changing priorities and the mounting influence of tech billionaires like Elon Musk, who has publicly attacked Preston and other progressive leaders.
“Not surprised that we’re seeing 400 people show up to a documentary on gentrification,” Preston told the crowd. “San Francisco is getting a reputation for being a tech playground and culturally dead. Nobody in their right mind wants that.”
The documentary’s swift sellout is being seen by organizers as a sign of a growing grassroots movement pushing back against the city’s rightward shift, fueled by tech money and corporate influence.
“This event single-handedly proves the Bay Area isn’t going to back down to big money,” said Woodliff. “It was beautiful.”
The City of Sensitive Frauds marks the latest collaboration between Riveira and Woodliff, whose viral videos and political commentary have cultivated a large following among Bay Area residents critical of the city’s direction.
Following the screening, the audience engaged in a panel discussion about the next steps for organizing against gentrification. Many expressed interest in joining housing rights campaigns and holding local politicians accountable for policies that prioritize development and profit over community needs.
For Preston, the night was another opportunity to rally San Franciscans around a vision of the city that remains accessible, diverse, and rooted in its working-class history.
“Events like this show that people are ready to fight for the soul of San Francisco,” Preston said. “And we’re not going anywhere.”
The City of Sensitive Frauds is expected to continue its run at community screenings throughout the Bay Area in the coming months.
We must tear down old residential buildings and put up new buildings to densify, but they must be affordable, but the developers cannot make them affordable, but we must densify, but we cannot gentrify, but we must densify, but we cannot gentrify, does not compute, does not compute, error error error . .. . BOOM!
Part of the problem is that you are making an attribution error – just because the Vanguard reports something, doesn’t mean that’s the Vanguard’s position. There are a multitude of views on housing that we attempt to capture, even in cases where we don’t agree.
Where did I say this was the Vanguard’s position? I was talking about the article.