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A.P. Giannini founded the Bank of Italy, which pioneered doing business with previously overlooked groups, including immigrants and women . The bank later became Bank of America. Giannini, who was born in the South Bay, lived in San Mateo for many years.

Over the course of working on his documentary about pioneering banker A.P. Giannini, filmmaker Davide Fiore says he has come to regard the man like a grandfather. And given the important local projects that Giannini helped finance, he might also be described as one of the grandfathers of the Bay Area. Among those projects: the Golden Gate Bridge and providing capital to the founders of Hewlett-Packard.

But Giannini’s story isn’t as widely known as one might expect for all of the projects he touched. That’s what spurred Fiore to make a documentary about him. […]

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Heather Zimmerman has been with Embarcadero Media since 2019. She is the arts and entertainment editor for the group's Peninsula publications. She writes and edits arts stories, compiles the Weekend Express...