The Exiles

Product Description

THE EXILES chronicles one night in the lives of young Native American men and women living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. A formally wealthy neighborhood of decayed Victorian mansions and skid-row apartment buildings. Gritty, realistic and far ahead of its time made in a period when Hollywood films featured Native Americans as noble savages. Using a script created exclusively from recorded interviews with the participants and their friends, the film follows a group of exiles transplants from Southwest reservations as they flirt, drink, party, fight, and dance.

Review

A precious document of a vanished culture! –Richard Corlis, Time Magazine

CRITICS PICK. Enthralling and breathtakingly gorgeous, it s almost astonishing that this find languished in the archives for so long –Sara Cardace, New York Magazine

Enthralling and breathtakingly gorgeous! –New York Magazine

About the Director

Filmmaker Kent Mackenzie first conceived of The Exiles during the making of his short film Bunker Hill 1956 while a student at the University of Southern California. In July 1957, Mackenzie began to hang around with some of the young Indians in downtown Los Angeles. After a couple of months, he broached the subject of making a film that would present a realistic portrayal of Indian life in the community. Mackenzie spent long hours making friends and earning the confidence of these Indians who finally agreed to re enact a scenes from their lives for this picture. All of the actors, some of whom were recruited on the spur of the moment during the shooting, play themselves in the film.