Caron Creighton On Capturing The Fight To Save Northern California’s Largest Homeless Encampment With Her Debut Feature ‘Wood Street’
Caron Creighton’s debut documentary, ‘Wood Street’, follows residents of Oakland’s Wood Street encampment as they organised legal and community resistance to eviction. The encampment, formerly Northern California’s largest, was demolished in 2023, and the film aims to challenge portrayals of its residents as threatening by showing their collective efforts to protect their homes and community.
Creighton first encountered Wood Street while reporting for the San Francisco Chronicle, then left her job after residents received eviction notices in 2022 to film their campaign. She shot roughly 95% of the 100-minute film herself, focusing on organisers John Janosko and LaMonté Ford; an estimated 300 residents were displaced when the site was cleared. ‘Wood Street’ is screening at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia after sold-out local screenings in Oakland and the Bay Area.
- Documentary follows Oakland encampment residents resisting eviction.
- Wood Street’s 2023 demolition displaced about 300 people.
- Creighton filmed most of the feature alone.