Roll Fog

Directed & Produced by: Daniel Díaz

Stage:
- Production
Location:
- California, United States
Updated: February 4, 2026
Project Type:
- Feature
Project Style:
- Observational
Theme Subject:
- Politics,
- Social / Cultural

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Logline

When San Francisco City FC, the oldest community-owned fútbol club in the US, loses its beloved stadium to a new team backed by money and politics, their diehard fans refuse to fold. Instead, they rally with punk grit and working-class spirit to fight for their club's survival through a season of uncertainty.

Background

On May 9, 2025, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie posted an announcement on Instagram that a new soccer club named Golden City FC (GCFC) would be Kezar Stadium’s newest resident. On June 25, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favour of granting GCFC a 15-year permit to use Kezar Stadium, with the option for three additional five-year extensions. This effectively displaced SF City FC from its home.

GCFC were co-founded by Geoff Oltmans and Marc

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GCFC were co-founded by Geoff Oltmans and Marc Rohrer, who the San Francisco Chronicle describes as ‘finance executives and San Francisco soccer dads’. It came to light that, since 2012, Oltmans has been a major donor to a non-profit founded by the San Francisco Mayor. Reports show his contributions total between $152,000 and $324,987. Additionally, Oltmans’s employer, private equity firm Silver Lake, has donated between $275,500 and $550,992. This all comes at a time of hostility for San Francisco residents, with many of our neighbours living in fear of being abducted by unidentifiable masked ICE agents. A campaign of terror, facilitated by those in power, targeting fellow San Franciscans who have received no words of reassurance or support from their Mayor. While fútbol and sport may seem insignificant in this context, we know these things to be connected, and the erosion of community-focused organisations, public spaces, and targeting of people power in the interest of profit is no accident.

This is especially pertinent with the rise of soccer’s popularity in the USA and the country being one of the co-hosts of the 2026 FIFA World Cup—an organization and event mired in corruption allegations for many years. On a local level, Oakland’s loss of the Athletics (baseball), Raiders (American football), and Golden State Warriors (basketball) franchises is still a fresh and painful reminder of how communities can be impacted by sports teams they have spent generations representing.

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Team

Daniel Díaz

Director & Producer

Team

Daniel Díaz

Director & Producer

Based in San Francisco, Daniel is a Colombian-British filmmaker, founder of Latin American documentary platform CiNEOLA, and Director of Marketing & Audience Strategy at the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC Media). He directed documentary short film JUNIOR TU PAPÁ (2024 True/False Film Fest) and ÉLEFAN (2023 Philadelphia Latino Film Festival) about the displacement of London’s Latinx community. Other credits include producer on award-winning Chilean feature film CAMALEÓN (BFI London Film Festival 2016) by Jorge Riquelme Serrano and co-producer on climate activism documentary FINITE: The Climate of Change (FIPADOC 2023, Impact Award winner) by Rich Felgate. Daniel has worked across film marketing, digital distribution, audience strategy and production in Europe, South America and the US—managing campaigns for films such as 12 YEARS A SLAVE, SPRING BREAKERS and THE LOBSTER. He is also a founding member of Bay Area Media Maker Summit (BAMMS) and was previously Director of Marketing at the California Film Institute (CAFILM).

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Daniel Freeman

Producer-Editor

Team

Daniel Freeman

Producer-Editor

Daniel Freeman is an independent filmmaker, documentary editor, and music composer. During his time as a 2019–2020 SFFILM FilmHouse resident, he wrote, directed, and edited his award-winning debut feature, Teddy, Out of Tune, which screened at Mill Valley, Bushwick, and Maryland Film Festivals. Daniel has directed over a dozen short films over the years with a special focus on scrappy artists, musicians, and heartfelt adventures. As an editor and composer, he has worked on several documentary and video installation projects, including Junior Tu Papá, a Colombian fútbol documentary selected for True/False and FICCI Film Festivals. Based in San Francisco, Daniel is a founding member of the cinematic musical duo, nobozos, which regularly performs live film scores and composes for independent audiovisual projects. He is currently editing and composing the upcoming documentary feature film, Stray Embers—co-directed by award-winning filmmakers Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin—which chronicles life after the most destructive wildfire in California history.

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Synopsis

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San Francisco has a tradition of resistance, grit, and self-expression that makes the city special. In fútbol terms, this unique spirit is embodied in the identity of San Francisco City FC (SF City FC), the oldest community-owned club in the United States. ROLL FOG starts with the 2025 season and the iconic Kezar Stadium, home of SF City FC. We suddenly learn of a billionaire-backed copycat club, Golden City FC, arriving with the enthusiastic support of San Francisco’s Mayor. We will witness the energy, fervor, and passion of SF City FC supporters in their last game at this storied stadium before their home is ultimately taken from them. SF City FC’s displacement reflects the threats faced by the city’s working class and the erosion of culture in San Francisco. The film delves into the worlds of SF City FC’s three supporter groups—made up fútbol fanatics, punk rockers, high schoolers, fighters, and anti-racist skinheads—as they join forces to fight back, find a new home and lay claim to their city in defiance of those seeking to push them out.

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Style & Tone

Roll Fog is told from the fans’ perspective; as such, we are employing a visual style that puts the audience in the shoes of the supporters. By experiencing the fans day-to-day and revealing the inner workings of a fútbol club owned by the community, viewers will get a sense of what’s at stake.

The story of our characters will be told primarily through vérité footage and unstaged interviews, shot handheld with natural, subtle movement. This style will convey a

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The story of our characters will be told primarily through vérité footage and unstaged interviews, shot handheld with natural, subtle movement. This style will convey a sense of proximity and accessibility to our protagonists, reinforcing the inclusive spirit of the club, its community, and San Francisco as a whole. The interactions with participants will be familiar and organic, with my participation as the film’s director used sparingly for effect, as a member of the community and voice in the story. These will be shot primarily on a handheld Sony FX30 to achieve the desired level of intimacy with the characters. We’re shooting on a Sony FX9 for the larger cinematic set pieces at the games, designed to capture the group emotion, detail, and grandeur on display at the stadiums. Super 8 footage will be used sparingly as a device for accenting nostalgia and memory, specifically conveying the melancholy of the club’s final season at Kezar Stadium.

We will incorporate shots of San Francisco, its landscapes, neighborhoods, and people as a base layer to represent the city’s history, land, and memory, acting as a foundation for the story. These visuals will pay special attention to the city’s unique beauty and contradictions to ground the story in San Francisco and give us a specific sense of place. Roll Fog reveals the fútbol in everyday life, and the everyday life in fútbol. Reinforcing the idea that SF City FC and its people are a fitting representation of San Francisco. From the tiered stadium seating matching the homes rising up the city’s hillsides, to the formations and movements of SF City FC players mimicking those of San Francisco residents moving through their day-to-day lives, and the waves of supporters jostling excitedly in the stands resembling the to-and-fro of the Pacific lapping onto the shores of Ocean Beach. This will introduce a sense of play, poetry, and improvisation—what fútbol is all about—through movement, creating connection through familiarity for the audience as the story unfolds.

Colour will play an important role in this film, as it does in fútbol, as the key identifier for supporters, clubs, and their allegiances. The visuals will be vibrant, showcasing San Francisco as a stage and our protagonists as a dynamic force that represents the life of this city. ‘70s tones will become accentuated in moments that evoke memory and nostalgia; a reference to a defining era for San Francisco, a decade when Kezar Stadium was the stage for historic anti-war protests, and a golden age for fútbol before the influx of corporate money changed the game. We’re lucky to be working with talented Colourist Filipe Fernandes, whose experience includes the acclaimed Netflix fútbol documentary series Sunderland Til I Die, among other award-winning feature films and shows. His contribution will be integral to how we tell our story.

The thick fog is synonymous with San Francisco and a long-time symbol of the city. As such, the fog will play an allegorical role in the story. Throughout the film, we’ll see it become more prominent in the visuals, with rolling fog enveloping the city as the supporters gain traction, growing stronger as they find a new home and lay claim to the city. In defiance of those seeking to displace them.

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Roll Fog

Logline

Team

Daniel Díaz

Daniel Díaz

Daniel Freeman

Daniel Freeman

Our Ask