The Exiles (1961)

The Exiles (1961)
Native Americans in Los Angeles. For twelve hours one Friday night, from late afternoon until dawn, we follow a handful of urban Indians.

Bunker Hill was then a blighted residential locality of decayed Victorian mansions, sometimes featured in the writings of Raymond Chandler, John Fante and Charles Bukowski. The structure of the film is that of a narrative feature, the script pieced together from interviews with the documentary subjects.

The Exiles did not find a distributor to release it theatrically in 1961, and so over the years it fell into obscurity, known to cinephiles but remaining largely unseen by the public. In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time.

Director: Kent MacKenzie
Writer: Kent MacKenzie
Stars: Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tom Reynolds

16mm/B&W/Sound/72 min.