Exiles, The

USA 1961, 72 minutes
Dir. Kent MacKenzie
Genres: Drama / Independent

Feat. Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tommy Reynolds, Rico Rodriguez, Clifford Ray Sam, Clydean Parker, Mary Donahue

Aroview: Independent drama from great unsung American director Kent MacKenzie.

The plot follows a group of Native Americans in the 1950's who have left their homes on reservations in the Southwest to move into the impoverished district of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. MacKenzie built the script from interviews from documentary subjects, and employed American Indian actors for the filming. The result is an astonishingly authentic portrayal of Native American lives following The Indian Relocation Act of 1956, and a portrait of urban decay in an area of LA made famous in the writings of Raymond Chandler, John Fante, and Charles Bukowski.