Before _Sinners_ , before _Black Panther_ , before _Fruitvale Station_ (and before his Oscar win last weekend), Ryan Coogler was a fresh, young USC grad student with a 16mm camera and a story he needed to tell.

His 2009 short _Locks_ is just six minutes long, set in Oakland, and follows a man with dreadlocks as he walks through his neighborhood. He sees two other men (also with dreadlocks)…