The year was 1987, the place Oakland, the rapper Too Short, the song “Freaky Tales” — nine and a half minutes of raunchy hip-hop that left a permanent mark on Oakland-raised director Ryan Fleck (“Captain Marvel,” “Mississippi Grind”). Thursday night, Fleck, with his directorial partner Anna Boden, premiered a film named after the song at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

The iconic Bay Area hip-hop track serves as the loose inspiration for the movie “Freaky Tales,” which is narrated by Short and features him in a brief cameo as a police officer (who, no surprise, utters Short’s favorite word). Fleck and Boden weave four interlocking stories rooted in Oakland culture of the 1980s, focusing on an old-school rap battle, a down-and-out debt collector, the punk rock institution 924 Gilman St. (which is technically in Berkeley), and Golden State Warrior “Sleepy” Floyd’s 29-point fourth quarter playoff win against the LA Lakers.

“I’ve been thinking about [the film] ever since that Sleepy Floyd game on May 10, 1987,” Fleck said in a Q&A after the film. “Which was phenomenal. It felt like the underdogs could at least win one … this is sort of like my 12-year-old fantasy.”

Pascal plays Clint, a debt collector who finds himself in the middle of a chaotic massacre at a house in Oakland. NBA All-Star Floyd (played by Ellis) has taken revenge on a group of Nazi criminals who’d been tormenting the punks at Gilman and have robbed Floyd’s home. The scene, a bloodbath of martial arts mayhem, was a true exercise in indie filmmaking, and more important, a great time, according to Pascal and Ellis. 

“We laughed the entire time, as crazy as that scene was,” Ellis said. “We had so much fun between setups. There were meltdowns; we helped each other through the meltdowns quite a few times.”

“The night that [Ellis] is referencing was a crazy f—king night. We were doing simultaneous things between setups,” Pascal said. “And you were killing all the Nazis, and we were doing the thing downstairs. And that was freaky. An independent film, and getting it done, and getting to the finish line. I’d never seen it get done like that. It was like [the crew] were miracle workers. It was all happening at once, and it was unbelievable.”

“Freaky Tales” is slated to play several more times throughout the festival, but distribution details and a release date have not yet been announced.