New documentary “Keeper of the Fire” spotlights poet Alejandro Murguía and San Francisco’s Mission District

A half-hour film centers on a longtime writer-activist and the neighborhood that shaped his work

A new documentary featuring San Francisco poet Alejandro Murguía is set to premiere in the Mission District, bringing renewed attention to a literary figure whose career has been tightly interwoven with the city’s Latino cultural institutions and political history.

The film, titled Keeper of the Fire, is a half-hour documentary that follows Murguía’s life and work while examining the role of activist writers and poets in civic struggles. The project identifies gentrification and the preservation of Latino art and culture as central themes, using Murguía’s career to trace how literary work can intersect with organizing, education and community-building across decades.

Keeper of the Fire frames Murguía’s writing and public life against recurring debates over displacement, cultural continuity and power in rapidly changing cities.

The premiere is scheduled for Saturday, January 24, 2026 at Brava Theater Center on 24th Street, with doors listed for 6 p.m. and the program beginning at 7 p.m. Brava’s event listing describes the screening as a film premiere focused on Murguía as an educator, writer and activist.

Who Alejandro Murguía is, and why the Mission is central

Murguía has been a prominent voice in San Francisco literature and cultural politics for decades. He has written extensively about the Mission District and has been associated with the neighborhood’s arts infrastructure, including leadership connected to the Mission Cultural Center. His nonfiction has documented Mission life during the 1970s, a period marked by political mobilization and transnational solidarity movements that helped shape community organizations and cultural production in the district.

His recognition includes two American Book Awards—one for Southern Front and another for This War Called Love—and he has served as San Francisco’s poet laureate, becoming the first Latino poet to hold the position. The documentary positions these accomplishments alongside a broader narrative about how poets participate in public life, from cultural programming to activism.

What the documentary says about place—and what it shows

The project description indicates the film moves across multiple locations linked to Murguía’s life and influences, including San Francisco’s Mission and North Beach, along with travels connected to Latin America and U.S. cities beyond California. The Mission is not treated as a backdrop alone, but as a lived setting where conflicts over housing, identity and cultural memory are ongoing and highly visible.

• Format: Half-hour documentary.

• Subject: Alejandro Murguía’s life and work as a writer, educator and activist.

• Focus: The civic role of poets, with gentrification and cultural preservation as major themes.

• Premiere: January 24, 2026, Brava Theater Center in San Francisco.

By placing a Mission-based writer at the center of a film about activism and cultural endurance, Keeper of the Fire adds to a growing body of screen work that treats San Francisco neighborhoods as complex protagonists—defined as much by residents’ cultural labor as by the economic pressures reshaping the city.