[Published at the San Francisco Chronicle] Peter Nicks moved to Oakland in 1997 and never looked back. He’s been showcasing essential stories in the city ever since.

“I’ve lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere in my life,” the film director recently told The Chronicle via Zoom. “Early on, I recognized that the Bay Area, and Oakland in particular, was a really fertile stage from which to tell stories because, in part, it reflects America so well — in terms of its diversity, in terms of how it’s changing, in terms of the problems and social and economic issues that we’re trying to grapple with.”

Nicks’ latest documentary, “Homeroom,” marks the final installment of a trilogy exploring systemic shortcomings through various Oakland institutions: 2012’s “The Waiting Room” follows how Highland Hospital struggles to care for a predominantly uninsured community, and 2017’s “The Force” delves into the Oakland Police Department reconciling community distrust.

With “Homeroom,” Nicks applies his signature cinema verité style to Oakland High School during the tumultuous 2019-20 school year, told almost entirely from the graduating class’ perspective.

“Homeroom” is screening at this year’s SFFilm Festival, which runs Friday, April 9, through April 18. The film is available to stream throughout the festival, with a drive-in screening scheduled at Fort Mason Center for the Arts at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 16.

Nicks is also this year’s recipient of the festival’s George Gund III Craft of Cinema Award, and viewers can watch an award conversation between Nicks and SFFilm Executive Director Anne Lai after the credits roll.

“Being here in the Bay Area for most of my career, it’s so meaningful,” Nicks said of receiving the award. “SFFilm’s family to me. This Bay Area community has played a huge role in my growth as an artist, so it’s really special.”

Established in 2011, the award pays homage to the late philanthropist Gund, who was a longtime supporter of the festival.

“George Gund III also believed that the Bay Area had a special role to play in championing social justice issues,” SFFilm said in a statement. “Peter’s work and filmography undeniably embody the spirit of this special recognition.”

What began as a film analyzing the complex relationship among parents, youths and educators in the age of unsupervised social media interaction and exposure at Oakland High evolved into a snapshot of teen angst amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic and incidents of police brutality.

Social media “was a part of how kids were finding and discovering themselves, and ultimately, it became a tool for how they organized these massive marches after the George Floyd situation,” Nicks said. “How that empowered them, and how that enabled them to take action, do community organizing on their own is, in some ways, unprecedented. In the ’60s, it was more college-aged kids, whereas now, it’s kids in junior high school.”

Before last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, Oakland High students began advocating for the defunding of the Oakland Unified School District police department. Led by senior Denilson Garibo, the students’ efforts were initially voted against by the Oakland Unified school board, where Garibo served as a student director.

However, the protests sparked more conversations, and the board unanimously voted to dismantle the 67-member police force by the end of 2020.

Through Nicks’ trilogy, the intersection of health care, education and police is prevalent, particularly in Black and brown people. The viewer can infer the hurdles that Garibo’s family of undocumented immigrants had to overcome in order to gain access to health insurance. And, as Garibo points out in “Homeroom,” the police presence at school did not make him or his community feel safer.

“My family is undocumented,” Garibo says in the film. “Me being targeted by the police … means that I’m putting their lives in this country at risk. (It) means that they could get tracked down.”

“The reason why I think of it as a trilogy is because there’s a very particular relationship between education and criminal justice and the health care system in our country,” Nicks said. “What I wanted to do was try to not articulate explicitly the connections between those institutions, but to remind ourselves that these are the pillars of our communities and that we need to be very mindful of how these institutions are functioning in our communities so that we can make policy decisions.”

“Homeroom” also features an original song by two Bay Area staples, R&B singer Goapele and rapper Rexx Life Raj. The song, titled “Look at Us,” is an artistic flourish uncommon to cinema verité. The track is a tribute to Nicks’ teen daughter — a Goapele fan — who died during the production, and to whom he dedicates “Homeroom.”

“She was a singer, and I wanted to find ways to honor her,” Nicks said. “Not only in the stories of these kids, but almost metaphorically find a way to allow her voice into the movie.”

Nicks wants to continue telling Oakland stories with his production company, Open’hood, as well as Proximity Media, the multimedia company Nicks co-founded with fellow Oakland filmmaker Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther,” “Fruitvale Station”). Nicks heads the nonfiction side.

“My dream is allowing Oakland to begin its own life as a community storytelling hub,” Nicks said. “This notion of people telling stories of their own community is very powerful.”

“Homeroom”:  6:30 p.m. Friday, April 16. $70 per car. Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture. For tickets, go to www.sffilm.org/event/homeroom. Available to stream throughout the festival. bit.ly/homeroom-sffilm

SFFilm Festival: Friday, April 9, through April 18. Ticket prices include $75 for a festival streaming pass ($50 for members), $12 for an individual streaming ticket ($8), $70 for a drive-in ticket ($55), and $100 for the opening night drive-in ($75). Showtimes vary. For the full schedule, go to www.sffilm.org.