Marvin, a young aspiring writer from New York, moves to California to write a novel. He ends up rooming with a chaotic, bohemian musician named Jay. Marvin finds himself inexorably drawn into the vibrant youth culture of San Francisco's Mission District as both Jay and himself watch their worlds disintegrate. They discover that each has a lot to learn from the other. Mission is a coming-of-age story casting a spotlight on a place and time, moments before artistic aspiring types yielded the Mission to the dotcom entrepreneurs.
Acting
Joshua Leonard's Jay is pure unhinged charisma.
Cinematography
Mission District as character, captured before eviction.
Director
Loren David Marsh
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot in 1999, the film documents the Mission's bohemian twilight just before the first dot-com boom priced out the artists it portrays.
Joshua Leonard was fresh off The Blair Witch Project (1999); this was his attempt to prove he could exist in daylight.
US
