Blindspotting

“The biggest struggle for me is just being faced with the question ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ every single day,” said April Absynth who is currently featured as Jacque in the comedy-drama Blindspotting. In a rare portrayal of a Filipino family on mainstream television, April’s character and her father, played by Dante Basco, figure in an episode.

Blindspotting is an American comedy-drama series and a spin-off sequel to the 2018 film of the same name. This Oakland-based project centers on struggles with gentrification, police violence, and the inequalities of the American criminal justice system.

Blindspotting tackles issues of race, class, gun violence, police brutality and gentrification through the story of two Oakland best friends. Not coincidentally, the film is written and performed by two best friends from Oakland: Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal.

Blindspotting was one of the talked about films to bow at this year’s Sundance – and it’s being talked about even more now that it’s opened wide. Directed by Carlos López Estrada and produced, written and played by Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) and Rafael Casal, the film is part of the growing “Oakland New Wave” which includes, just this year, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (another Sundance sensation) and a little movie called Black Panther, via East Bay favorite son Ryan Coogler (who not surprisingly worked his hometown into the plot).