Film: The Exiles (in 35mm)

Director Kent Mackenzie’s 1961 innovative, genre-bending feature, The Exiles, surveys the lives of Indigenous folks who had been displaced from their reservation and are now living in and around what was then Bunker Hill in Downtown LA. Mackenzie employs minimal intent in the formation of his cinematic language, utilizing negative space in his shots, which consist of frequent close-ups of the subjects, transforming their faces into vast landscapes while respectfully keeping distance in his observation. A chronicle of their night with movies, jukeboxes, Brylcreem, and flashy cars, Mackenzie’s film positions his subjects as very much part of American culture, not as the outsiders many then considered them to be.

DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Kent Mackenzie. WITH: Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tommy Reynolds, Rico Rodriguez. 1961. 72 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm. Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in collaboration with the USC Moving Image Archive, and in partnership with Milestone Films. Major funding provided by the National Film Preservation Foundation.